Laine Nixon was my next-door neighbor on Bonita Lane for almost twelve years. She’s quiet (I

was stunned she even agreed to be interviewed), unfailingly kind, and puts up a devastatingly

cool avant-garde-- but somehow still understated-- holiday light installation every year.

 

I knew Laine was an artist, but didn’t know just how talented she was until, in the course of my

annual chairing of the John Ringling Tower Grant Panel for the Sarasota Arts and Cultural

Alliance, her application came through for visual art. I recused myself from the debate. Laine

won anyway.

 

Her application showed me an artist who is interested in the progress of her work, thoughtful in

her descriptions, diligent with her work ethic, and incredibly gifted in execution.

 

Have I mentioned she’s very, very good at what she does?

 

For this interview, I meet Laine at her workspace just north of downtown. Her studio is with

SPAACES, is a local non-profit that, per its website “brings the community together to consider

a wide variety of artistic activities relevant to current social, political, and cultural movements.”

 

It looks like a warehouse complex, but, upon closer inspection, SPAACES is a busy hive of

activity. People are rushing to and fro holding paints, chatting with each other in the shade of

the trees in the parking lot, and Laine is waiving to me happily as I approach.

 

She’s been in this space since 2019, and it’s clear the artists that studio here have a tremendous camaraderie.

 

“There’s a lot of hallway conversations,” she says, shyly smiling. Looking around, I see a few

largish canvases in various states of progression, each with soft colors, exuding with an almost

ethereal peace. One of the other artists who shares the studio introduces herself and

everything here seems just so — warm.

 

Laine is a small-town girl from Norman, Oklahoma, in the middle of the Great Plains, where “the long horizons show all of the light gradients.” Looking around, I can feel that in her canvases. “The place I grew up always informs my art,” she says. She apologizes for not having more pieces there the day I arrive, as she sends much of her work to St. Pete where she has an

ongoing collaboration with the Soft Water Gallery.

 

I am stunned to learn that despite her obvious dedication and talent, Laine’s path to being artist was unconventionally winding. A springboard diver, she was recruited by the University of

Southern Illinois right after high school before transferring to the University of Tennessee.

During college, she studied mathematics, eventually becoming a software implementations consultant.

 

This path seemed to me, at first, so at odds with the usual trajectory of a successful creative,

that I ask her if she always knew she wanted to be a professional artist, like an itch she’d always wanted to scratch but was too practical to take a leap. I do not get the answer I expected.

 

“No,” Laine says, “I never thought about it really.”

 

“Not even when you were little?”

 

Her realization came much later. “Nope, not when I was growing up. But, as a young adult in

the corporate world, I did start to feel like maybe I was meant for something different. I started

doing some abstract photography in like 2003 or 2004, and it felt really good.” Later, her new

passion led her to other artistic expressions, and more school.

 

She started her bachelor’s in fine arts at Georgia State, and then finished at USF after

going on a year-long road trip all over the United States, with the aim of finding “the

perfect place to live.” Enter Sarasota, specifically our fair Red Rock Park, and the rest is history.

 

The more she talks, the more all her background fits into the woman she is, and the art she

produces. She’s organized, meticulous even. Her studio is neat and sunny, just like she is. Her

pieces are ordered, and the way she describes them is precise and articulate. She is shy but

has such obvious and profound connections with the people around her.

 

I ask her what she does for fun (other than painting). She is part of the Suncoast Milers running club, a group that meets weekly to run together.

 

Laine says another surprising thing next, almost interrupting herself. “Oh! And I run a Creative

Habits Lab!” she says brightly almost as if she had forgotten about the Lab and is so happy to

remember. She is obviously enthusiastic about this.

 

I am picturing a co-painting space when she says this, probably because of the studio, but the

Creative Habits Lab is not something I would have imagined. She describes it to me, but later, I

read on her website, “a structured hour to build a consistent creative morning routine,” which is the best and most concise description.

 

She leads two virtual “sessions” each day Monday-Thursday with folks from all different

professions. Laine is, in fact, the only painter currently in the group. Participants check in

quickly with each other at the start of the hour, then work on their own, in virtual tandem, with

cameras on, to “create just enough accountability and engagement to follow through on

intentions,” then they close the meeting with a “debrief and celebration.”

 

“I like structure and helping people build consistency in their habits.”

 

She talks about her creative process, saying, “I generally just get an idea feeling that something is there, a flash really, that I need to explore, then I start defining it, fleshing it out in my mind before trying to create it.” Sometimes things don’t go according to plan, but she perseveres.

 

“By the time I start working, I generally am attached enough to the idea of what I wanted to

create, so if I make mistakes, or if it doesn’t feel right, I can work out any kinks and stick it out.”

I want to remember this advice.

 

I learn that her mom, Judy, moved into the neighborhood as well in 2016, which Laine

says “surprised” her. Laine explains, “it took a lot of courage for her to uproot herself from a

place that had been in our family for three generations.” She is referring to the home in

Seminole, OK, built by Laine’s great-grandfather in 1931, where Laine visited her grandparents

Roy and Anne throughout her childhood. Both Laine and her mom hold powerful memories from “the ranch”, not the least of which were the Oklahoma sunsets that inspire Laine’s art. Judy’s arrival to Sarasota was clearly a good surprise. “Having her close by is so great, and so lucky.”

 

She’s exceptionally fascinating, and I love the insights she served me while we chatted. I’m sad

when the interview ends, so I am glad to get a follow up email from her a few weeks later, with

details about her upcoming show at Arts Advocates Gallery at Siesta Key Mall. She writes, “It is

a group show of the SPAACES artists.” My calendar is definitely marked for 2-4 PM on

October 5.

 

Laine is a study in complimentary opposites building and enforcing each other, and she

manages to knit all the parts of her work and her life into one seamless canvas. We are so

lucky to have her as our neighbor, and I can’t wait for her October show.