What’s In A Name?

Switching careers midlife isn’t for the faint of heart. After 15 years of teaching art to kids, in 2019 I left teaching to pursue writing and illustrating children’s books. Who knew that six short months later we’d be in the middle of a global pandemic? With the world seeming to stop I suddenly had all this time on my hands to consider the name of my business and what being a full time artist would look like. I landed on “Lisa Haight Studio”. I’ve never enjoyed my first name—with it’s 70’s roller skating vibes (although that’s come back into fashion now)—but I’ve always loved my last name. Pronounced like “hate” it constantly trips people up as they try to make it into two syllables. “Hay-et?”

No, friend, just good old “hate/Haight”. Short. Sweet. Definitive.

But what about “Studio”? I suppose I could have opted for something like “Lisa Haight Illustrations” or “Art by Lisa” but the word “studio” encompasses not only physical space but space for ideas. A studio is a place where things are created, recorded, processed. Studios are dedicated sacred spaces for reflection, mess, process, and practice. Studios are places where a lot of different things can happen. I sing regularly in my studio. I also weave, collage, paint, draw, and read. “Studio” implies possibilities, variety, experimentation. But what I love about the word “studio” is when said out loud the mouth finishes in an “O” shape, like a surprise.

(Try it.)

There isn’t a day I spend in my studio where I don’t stumble across something that surprises me. I’m surprised by the way the light filters through the space as the day passes, by how many art supplies I’ve collected, by how excited I get when a piece flows easily from my brain to my hands and out onto the page. Other times I’m surprised how much (and how quickly) frustration boils up and over as I struggle with a new technique or technology. Regardless, there’s always room for something new or unexpected in Lisa Haight Studio.

Welcome.