The Muse(um) of Lana Gentry

Above: Lana Gentry “Lovebird” Artist © Robert Mcneill

“F*ck My Heart” — © Lana Gentry Self Portrait

Gentry’s discussion of her creative work and processes feel as intimate and inspired as her creations themselves. She classifies her work as “outlier” art and she herself an outlier who operates outside the mainstream and without traditional schooling. Her art, she says, is developed in the absence of influence. Because of her sensitivities and learning differences, she really had to learn everything in life on her own and in her own way. Things that easily made sense to other people were like “a foreign language” to her and she had to keep “shifting gears” to eventually learn the skillsets of life.

Gentry considers herself a writer first and talks passionately about the wonderful artists she collaborates with, writes about, and features in the magazine loBURN, for which she is the managing editor and lead writer. She says that even with her visual art, it is always words that come first. When she began bringing written worlds into her drawings, creating a journal feel to her work, she says, “I felt like it was cheating.” As if visual art is supposed to stand alone without words being needed. But then, she never created within the confines of rules. Using words feels authentic and her art is a journal of her journey through life.

“It’s always shocking that people buy it,” Gentry says of her work, “because it’s so intimate to me.” I think that her pieces work because they are intimate to others as well. Her work strikes me like a classic folk song, Dylan, or the more modern and southern Jace Everett, a mirror into the individual soul, and at the same time reminiscent of something so familiar, universal, and connectable. Her work is reflective of the modern sadness, beauty, and magic of the feminine, but also pulls on the past, the eternal and timeless.

Finally, I get to ask Gentry about the hundreds of portraits done of her and she’s excited to tell the story… Years ago, there was a small group of art friends in Gentry’s circle who did portraits of each other on Myspace to hone their craft. Around this time there was another artist that Gentry admired, who would post portraits that people had done of her, and Gentry was fascinated by this. This artist (now a close friend of Gentry’s but a private person whose name Gentry protects) seemed to be a sort of muse, inspiring others to create art based on her image and art. One day this muse sent Gentry a portrait she had drawn of her, Gentry, thrilled, posted it up for all to see. Then, seemingly overnight, other artists began creating portraits of Gentry as well! At first, it was always people within her circles, but soon it spread beyond, and she would wake up in the morning to find a portrait posted of her by a total stranger. Sometimes other artists would request pictures from her in certain settings or poses to draw from, other times they’d use selfies she had posted, or draw from other artists’ portraits of her. Once the portraits of Lana Gentry began, they never stopped. Gentry had been kissed by the muse and had become one herself.