Meet Lori Kanary | Creative Consultant/ Artist/ 3x Guinness World Record Holder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lori Kanary and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lori, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
Growing up, I always carried a sketch pad and was constantly recording the world around me, eager to improve my drawing skills every chance I could. I was also a competitive swimmer and classically trained pianist and these disciplines taught me endurance, concentration, focus and goal setting, like beating my best swim record, memorizing a longer Piano sonata, or learning a new art medium.

The habits that I learned when I was young helped me to develop the lifelong valuable tools that serve me as a visual artist to this day.
Included in my arsenal of successful habits are:

Goal setting. Visualize the completed project. Set a timeline for it. Materialize it.

Meditation. Helps with mental clarity and serves as a creative spring board for new ideas to merge and take off.
Practice continous learning. The creative process isn’t about perfection, but self improvement.
Time management. That includes prioritizing creative ideas and focusing on the strongest ones first and foremost.
Perserverance. Dont give up, it’s the little successes right around the corner that matter most.
Take risks. Dont be afraid to go straight to the top of the chain to obtain creative goals.
Ignore the gatekeepers. Don’t take no for an answer and if anyone tells you that you can’t do something, prove them wrong.
Above all, be authentic. When you believe in yourself, others will too.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As an artist, I have pioneered many new mediums but none have garnered as much attention as my oversized Lite-Brite work.
It started In 1997 when I had the idea to create an oversized image in Lite-Brite pegs. With its dazzling colored pegs , I thought that a giant Lite-Brite would be the perfect medium to demonstrate how children see the world, larger than life. In 1999, I reserved the Giant Lite-Brite space at RedShift Gallery that coincided with the Denver Art Musuem’s Impressionism Exhibit/Citywide Celebration. I previously had pointillist images in mind that would better suit the giant multi-peg image but chose Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet specifically for the Impressionism celebration, which I titled “If Claude Monet Had Grown Up With Lite-Brite.”

I had a seemingly impossible two month deadline to complete the Giant Lite-Brite for opening night at RedShift Gallery. On top of that it was already being advertised in the Impressionism Exhibit Brochure as the World’s Largest Lite-Brite. I hadn’t started build yet and this type of oversized toy art wasn’t out there, so the biggest challenge for me was to find the right material face to put thousands of pegs into. I had to research the best construction material to use for the peg image, at the same time, I was hunting for thousands of Lite-Brite peg refill packs that I could find in almost every Walmart across the state. With the help of the gallery building the light box and frame and a welding friend who suggested perforated sheet metal for peg image, I began working day and night. Due to time constraints, I ended up free handing the image instead of using the template I had originally planned and despite the various overwhelming challenges I faced, finished the Giant-Lite Brite in time for opening night at RedShift Gallery in Denver on November 5th, 1999.

The opening was a success and was covered by news and media outlets alike. Soon after the gallery opening, the Denver Art Museum generously contacted Guinness World Records in London to nominate the Giant Lite-Brite for record entry. I started gathering all the media info, news video and images of the Giant Lite-Brite for documentation and packed it away in a Lite-Brite toy box to send off to London for adjudication and in 1999, Giant Lite-Brite became a new Guinness World Record with 62,866 actual Lite-Brite pegs.

After being featured in the 2001 Guinness World Record edition for the new Lite-Brite record, people started approaching me on how to create the oversized toy art. In 2007 I assisted Mark Beekman, the next Lite-Brite record breaker in Pennsylvania, on build material as I wanted to inspire others and carry on this fun and unique idea to see just how big it could become.

Then, by late 2007 I was approached by ASICS shoes to help them set a new record Lite-Brite as part of their cross country marketing campaign for their Lite-Brite shoe. This brought new challenges for me as ASICS wanted to travel with it so I had to make it mobile somehow. I also had to hang the metal sheets with the hole pattern since there would be 3 extra panels to guarantee the new record. Fortunately I had help on this project from talented friends who assisted in the massive new build which required welding for the frame itself and a personalized trailer to haul it. By August 2008 the Asics Lite-Brite record was set using 347,004 actual Lite-Brite pegs.

In 2010, Disney artist Rob Surrette called me for material help for his Lite-Brite record attempt in which I happily obliged and his amazing 9/11 tribute image became the new 2011 Lite-Brite record.

Finally, in 2013 the St Paul Foundation hired me to help design the massive mobile Lite-Brite panel for artist
Ta-coumba T. Aiken as part of Minnesota’s Million Dollar Idea Challenge for the new and latest Lite-Brite record.

Each new Lite-Brite record comes with new challenges and someday I hope to recapture my record. Until then you can see my original Giant-Lite Brite at the Guinness World Record Museum in Los Angeles, California!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

We’d start out with lunch at the Dark Horse in Boulder, a landmark bar and grill that has movie props and relics in every inch of the restaurant.

Next stop, the Eldorado Corner Market, a quaint little gas station/gift shop I discovered along highway 93 complete with art cars, odd statuary and a dragon decorated monster pick-up truck named Godzilla.
It is one of my favorite quick escapes from the city when I need a break to recharge and has a great walking path with breathtaking views of the Boulder Flatirons.

Then we would end the day by relaxing in the caves at Indian Hot Springs.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have to give a shoutout to all of my family and friends who have supported me throughout the years and for the Divine strength to help make my crazy ideas happen.

Website: www.kanaryart.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KanaryStudio

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lori.kanary

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AndrewBeen

Image Credits
Christopher Perez Guinness World Record Museum Hollywood Lite-Brite Toy Stock Photo