Lindsey LaPlant is helping people mingle in a different way — through art. She launched her business, Expressively You, last July, to offer customers several different kinds of art experiences.
LaPlant will come to a special event like a birthday party or a wedding and draw portraits of participants as a special keepsake. She also frequents local festivals like the Good Neighbor Fest in Middleton. Using oil pastels and hand-painted mixed media paper — the sitter chooses the shade — LaPlant generally brings out more spirit and creative energy than the traditional cartoon caricatures that people are used to.
LaPlant facilitates opportunities for people to find their creative side as well, through Paint Night events, popular for everything from bachelorette parties to fundraisers. She views these as another opportunity to increase art appreciation: “I always have the goal to help people remember that inner child that everybody had before fourth grade, [when they believed] they were a good artist.”
Customers can also send LaPlant a photo they want replicated; memorializing a lost pet is a popular choice.
Inspiration for the business came from a 2004 trip to Spain. On the tour bus with her UW- Extension session travelmates, LaPlant found that using her sketchbook to draw the people and places around her broke the ice and helped in making connections and friendships. “I was on the bus drawing every single person and getting to know them,” says LaPlant.
LaPlant always had an interest in art. She earned her degree in art and design education from Edgewood College, and then promptly landed several different teaching gigs at the middle and high school levels. But as the child of parents who were both self-employed, she knew she wanted to go into business for herself.
She donates up to 50 percent of her revenue back to fundraisers, most recently working with Underdog Pet Rescue and the Woman of the Year campaign through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She has also partnered with Madison Originals Restaurant Group, holding regular family paint nights at Sprecher’s Restaurant and Pub and working on a mural at Liliana’s Restaurant in Fitchburg.
“People really want something different and creative,” says LaPlant. “That’s really what gives me a lot of passion and drive, I believe everybody should have things in their home and their office that truly is art — not a [reproduction] — that they can afford.”
Expressively You
facebook.com/pg/expressivelyyou, 608-228-1282, $35-$150