Meet Rachel Lanton | Intuitive Artist & Writer

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

Hi Rachel, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’ve always been a creative person with ideas in my head. I’d see beautiful textiles while traveling and think to myself, ‘Those would look so pretty somehow combined into a piece of art.’ I’d design our bathroom renovation and a friend would say, ‘I wish you’d help me do that!’ I’d create a multi-table charcuterie spread and someone would say, ‘I’d pay you to make that for our own parties!” I’d go through my babies’ old clothes and think, ‘Someone should find a way to reuse these special items into artwork.’

A fortuitous journey of postpartum anxiety, befriending a circle of powerful women through local motherhood retreats, the healing power of nature, and meditation led me to finally pursue art-making as a business, rather than just a fun hobby, when my two children started school in 2023. Now I create collage artwork using acrylic and watercolor paints, paper, and repurposed textiles (often thrifted clothes and other discarded scraps of material). My collages largely are based on the Colorado landscapes around us. I call them dreamscapes, because they’re a visual representation of dream-like scenes. I try to create art that evokes the feeling of being in nature and softening your eyes, when reality and fantasy collide, when awe surges within you and takes your breath away.

My paintings are available online or at The New Local Gallery in Boulder, which is a fantastic nonprofit supporting women artists. My hope for my business this year is to continue exploring my technique and unique voice, show my work locally around Golden more, connect with other artists and opportunities to sell my work, develop a more robust business strategy, and be prepared for holiday markets this fall. I’d also like to integrate travel itinerary planning services and helping “hygge-ify” people’s homes into my business. My brain likes to deep dive into one project at a time and needs the freedom for creative flow, so I’m learning how to honor that and be practical at the same time as a mother and partner. Within the next ten years, I’d also like to write a book and create a card deck!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a self-taught intuitive artist, writer, mama of two littles, extraverted introvert, restless wanderer, hygge obsessed decorator, feminine goddess, and lover of all things beautiful + good + fun. For years I pursued a career in nonprofits and healthcare administration, but my soul always longed to create. Somehow after creating humans, then I wanted to make everything and couldn’t stop.

I create abstract Colorado dreamscapes as a reflection of my soul: wild but soft, reckless but gentle, vibrant, raw, childlike, and untamed. As a sensualist and lover of the outdoors, forest bathing is a vital part of my creative practice, using all five senses to absorb the beauty and calm of mother earth. I rely on color and textural elements to bridge the gap between what I see and what I feel, using repurposed textiles to give new life to old things.

Art-making and travel are hopelessly intertwined in my life, for they both bring me immense joy and I find that one usually inspires the other. I’m currently exploring how to integrate both art and travel into my business and personal brand. While pregnant, I kayaked Norwegian fjords and ended up in a Portuguese hospital. I’ve climbed the Grand Teton, scuba dived in Iceland, and canoed a New Zealand river from headwaters to sea. I’ve changed my son’s diaper on a white tablecloth in Paris and nursed my daughter through dengue fever in Belize. I took cooking classes in a Tuscan farmhouse and slept in a convent in Florence. I’ve biked through fields of rice paddies in Cambodia and spent Christmas Day feasting with strangers in Puerto Rico. It’s through this lived, concrete experience of the world – the act of touching color and walking through the diverse depths of emotion- that inspires me to continuously create.

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.
Oh, I love taking solo day trips and having spontaneous adventures along the way! Having lived in Buena Vista, hiked all through the state, spent 13 years in different Denver city neighborhoods, and now living in Golden, there’s SO many little treasures everywhere. Personally, I like to linger when I explore, slowing down and being flexible to discover off-the-beaten-path surprises, rather than trying to ‘do everything.’ I care more about living an incredible experience than taking an incredible photo.

For an unforgettable long weekend summer road trip, I’d head out on Highway 285 and spend a night at Weston Pass Hut (you can drive directly there in summer). Then continue towards Salida and stay two nights in one of the tiny huts with Outside Design Nature Hotel if solo (https://www.outsidedesign.co/) or Mountain Goat Lodge with kids (https://www.mountaingoatlodge.com/). Visit the hot springs, kayak at O’Haver Lake or hike six miles to Ptarmigan Lake off Cottonwood Pass, devour a loaf of pretzel bread from The Trailhead in Buena Vista, roam the Salida art galleries with a cocktail from Wood’s High Mountain Distillery, and indulge in shockingly fantastic ramen at the Rocky Mountain Ramen food truck. Drive home a different way, heading towards Leadville and stopping first for a picnic at Twin Lakes. Catch an outdoor concert at Dillon Amphitheatre and drive home on I70 late afterwards to avoid traffic. Or spend one more night at Frisco Lodge and rent bikes to cruise around Dillon Reservoir before going home, pausing to wait out traffic in Idaho Springs at Smokin Yards or Indian Hot Springs.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’m especially grateful for stumbling onto a local group called Mothers Moving Mountains, founded by a fellow mama in City Park, around the time my first child was born. (https://mothersmovingmountains.com/) I had left my full time job to become a stay at home parent, which had always been a personal dream, but suddenly I was lonely and looking for deeper connection with women. Participating in several Colorado retreats with MMM helped me identify my tribe and find community, rediscover my feminine power, and ignite my creativity. This September, I’ll be joining that same group on a High Alps Quest, trekking the Walker’s Haute Route for 95 miles, from Mont Blanc in France to the Matterhorn in Switzerland!

Website: https://www.rachellantoncreative.com/

Instagram: @rachellantoncreative

Image Credits
Rachel Lanton