“I Am YEG Arts” Series: Layla Folkmann
Layla Folkmann, photo provided by the artist.
Ever looked around a room full of talented peers and wondered if you had the secret sauce to stay in the game? If you ask Layla Folkmann, she’ll tell you there’s no secret to it at all—just stubbornness, consistency, and fortitude. Some days, that looks like slogging through the rough patches. Other days, it looks like international success. No matter what the day though, Folkmann is never without gratitude for her unshakable foundation—one built on encouragement and education, with no backup plan in sight.
Mural artist, painter, and public-art advocate, this week’s “I Am YEG Arts” story belongs to Layla Folkmann.
Tell us about your connection to Edmonton and how it’s influenced your path.
As a free-range child of artist parents, I have many fond memories of being immersed in the Edmonton arts scene. From running through gallery openings and eating an excess of cheese off unattended platters, to bouncing restlessly in theatre seats, these early experiences have undeniably influenced my life in both obvious and imperceptible ways.
Education and early encouragement are undeniably the foundation on which my art career rests. I attended Victoria Composite School and the Grant MacEwan Fine Arts program, which provided a solid technical vocabulary that I consistently apply to my work to this day. It’s all these elements that have allowed me to confidently throw myself into the professional realm with the knowledge that I could make it work as an artist.
What themes are you drawn to in your work?
Luminosity and vibrant harmonious colours are aesthetic themes that I work with in all aspects of my painting practice, whether abstracts, portraiture, or large-scale mural work. I'm constantly searching for exciting colour combinations in the world around me to translate into my painting.
Honest portraits of real people is another consistent theme that my artistic collaborator, Lacey Jane, and I explore in our public mural work (Lacey & Layla Art). We find portraiture to be a compelling tool to encourage human connectedness by representing authentic members of a community and, hopefully, strengthening local pride. We aim to celebrate each community's unique character and urban diversity and to highlight community members and the human experience. We also explore what we like to call “techno nature,” which is a combination of design-based graphic elements and natural scenes. These pieces are our exploration into our contemporary interpretation of the natural world.
How do large-scale murals and public art play to your strengths as a storyteller?
By the nature of their size and location, murals can be an impactful and compelling storytelling tool. They are accessible in public spaces and memorable with their imposing format. People have explored this format from prehistoric cave paintings and the Mexican revolution, to the graffiti in New York subway stations. The power of the format is undeniable, reaching everyday people in everyday places.
Art speaks a universal language, and what continues to excite me about public murals is that they remove both the real and perceived barriers of a gallery or museum space and release artwork into the public sphere.
Public art has an unparalleled ability to transform urban—and even rural—spaces into an open living gallery that is free and accessible to everyone. It redefines communal areas and creates new opportunities for engagement, curiosity, appreciation, and ownership for the beautification of often neglected or forgotten spaces.
Each story we tell is curated to the space and the community in which we create the artwork. Each new location provides an opportunity for a new narrative to touch on the core aspects of the neighbourhood and the people who exist within it.
Top: Colour Outside the Lines by LALA, photo provided. Bottom: Larger Than Life A Mr. Chi Pig mural by LALA, photo provided.
What’s the first thing you ever made that inspired your artistic path? Did you know then that you’d unlocked something?
It has always been clear to me that art is what I was going to do; there was just never any other option. The form in which my career took was a happy accident and had everything to do with timing and chance. When I envisioned a career in the visual arts as a youth, becoming a mural artist wasn’t even on the radar. One opportunity presented itself, which led to the next, and then I ended up here. Luckily for me, there has been an international boom for mural art and I got on board early enough and have been riding that wave for over 10 years now. It seems that there is a new appreciation on the part of funding agencies and municipalities for the inherent value that murals can bring to a community.
Tell us a little about LALA (Lacey & Layla Art) and what that collaboration has meant to you.
My artistic collaboration with Lacey Jane has been fundamental to my continued growth as an artist. We initially met while studying Fine Arts at Grant MacEwan University in 2009 and have nurtured our “artnership” ever since. It is surprising to everyone, including ourselves, that we’ve maintained such a close friendship after the hundreds of travel hours and months of 12+ working hours a day in the rain, snow, and +40C heat. Each project has its unique challenges and unforeseen obstacles, but humour continues to be our greatest coping tool. Our enthusiasm for art is what brought us together, and it’s what continues to fuel our creative partnership. Together we push each other to take on bigger and more ambitious creative challenges.
What’s one piece of advice someone gave you growing up that turned out to be true. What’s one piece that didn’t hold up?
A professor of mine once mentioned that stubbornness, consistency, and fortitude are the qualities it takes to become a successful professional artist—not raw talent or early success. I see this truth demonstrated consistently within my artistic peer group. The people who make it work just simply do it, and then they keep doing it. They slog through the rough patches, make the right connections, and see it out the other side.
“Have a backup plan” was advice that didn’t hold up for me, personally. Perhaps it seems reckless to bet all your chips on red, but fully committing gave me the determination and motivation to pursue my passion without deviation or distraction.
What does community mean to you, and where do you find it?
Community is quite simply who one surrounds themselves with. I believe in making active choices rather than passive choices about those who remain in my close sphere. I consider those who I surround myself with to be a defining aspect of who I become as a person. I aim to have a community that I admire, full of positive, enthusiastic, and hard-working people who challenge and encourage me to become more of that myself.
Portraits by Layla Folkmann, photos provided by the artist.
When you’re struggling to stay on task, what’s your favourite way to procrastinate?
Productive procrastination seems to be a method I'm particularly fond of. I tell myself I can concentrate better when I “clean out my corners,” but I have a suspicion that is just an advanced avoidance technique. I also collect hobbies, such as soapmaking, felting, fermenting, carpentry, etc. Any of these can take precedence at inopportune times.
Tell us a little about what you’re currently working on or hoping to explore next.
My most substantial and challenging venture to date has been designing and building my own tiny house on wheels. It has been an ongoing, character-building exercise in creative problem-solving and patience, but it has me hooked. I am thrilled with the range of new skills it has taught me and the obstacles I've overcome. I did a whole lot of things wrong the first time before I could eventually get them right.
New and exciting mural projects with LALA are always in the works, and the winter months are dedicated to planning the next mural tour. Summers in Canada seem to disappear pretty quickly, but the winter allows me to decompress, plan, and create some studio work.
Most of my artistic career has been about mastering realism and representational work, but over the last few years, I have been exploring abstract painting to take a break from portraiture and the faithful replication of photographs. My abstracts provide me with a much-needed refuge in the pleasures of simple colour, light, and composition.
What excites you most about the YEG arts scene right now?
After relocating to Montreal for nine years and then returning to Edmonton, I’ve viewed the strength and quality of the YEG arts scene through a new lens. What I used to view as small, I now can appreciate for its intimacy, strength, warmth, and tight-knit community. The YEG support that our mural work has received throughout the years has been quite touching, and I feel quite at home.
Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here all year and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! Click here to learn more about Layla Folkmann, Lacey & Layla Art, and more.
A Charm by LALA, photo provided.
Layla Folkmann is an Edmonton-born internationally recognized mural artist and painter. She studied Fine Art at Grant MacEwan University (2009), École d'Enseignement Supérieur d'Art de Bordeaux (2015), and graduated with distinction from Concordia University in Montreal (2016) with a major in painting. For over a decade, she has dedicated her practice to socially and culturally engaged public art as part of LALA (Lacey & Layla Art) while fostering a passion for portraiture, realism, and the representation of compelling characters. Layla has collaborated on hundreds of murals across Canada and internationally in places such as Iceland, France, and northern Uganda. Layla has travelled extensively, having backpacked through nearly 40 countries. Over the past decade, she has received numerous grants, notable public projects and awards such as the 2021 Edmonton Artist Trust Fund Award. Layla is currently designing and building her own self-sufficient tiny house and maintains a full-time studio practice in her home town.
