Hi! I’m Lynn, and I believe that we’re never too old to be kids. I also believe that kids discover who they truly are through imaginative play. But children’s imagination must be sparked and nurtured through the images and stories they are surrounded by.
And that’s where I come in. I like to create adorable art and decor that will delight and inspire kids at any age.
When I was little, my parents told me I was good at writing and reading . They encouraged me to go into academia. My mom wanted me to become a doctor, but that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be an artist. I was absolutely fascinated by the world and began looking at it almost intensively from a very young age. I joke sometimes that I had a unique way of seeing the world. I would be memorized by the look of softly falling rain. I was enamored of the lines and shapes of trees. I used to stare at dewdrops glistening on flower petals for an eternity. The world just seemed to be a wonderfully magical place — a place I just had to document and even recreate. So I began drawing the beautiful but overlooked things I discovered in the world. Soon I began to dream of creating whole new worlds and began drawing fantastical creatures from my imagination to inhabit those worlds—unicorns, fairies and mermaids. I drew and created a world of my wildest dreams—a world where my imagination roamed free and where anything was possible.
But when I was 8 years old, my dream of becoming an artist died. I remember sketching a ballerina (I was also a ballerina at this time) and then one of my friend’s sisters, who was an artist, looked at my drawing , grimaced and said that she couldn’t tell what it was. In contrast, I looked at her drawings and was crushed to see how much better they were than mine. And then in a flash of childish ignorance, I assumed I didn’t have the “talent” to be a great artist. I assumed she had created her drawings in 5 minutes from her imagination without any help or training— like I did. So I stopped drawing and did what my parents expected me to do. I became doctor. In 2010, I received my PhD in English from the University of California.and then went onto to do content marketing in some very prestigious Fortune 500 companies.— Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Kaiser Permanente etc.
In fact, during this dark time, I ignored so many signs that my truth path was art., such as the time I painted an elaborate mural for a Shakespeare project I worked for in an English class. The professor looked at it in awe and said, “Are you sure you’re in the right major?” I laughed uncomfortably and just shrugged him off because by that point I was conditioned to be blinded to my true calling as so many of us are.
But what I didn’t realize is that my friend’s sister was 3 years older than I and had been practicing art in art school for years. That drawing she pretended to knock off in 5 minutes she had been laboring over for weeks. What I didn’t realize then is that I never should have compared my self to another artist only to myself. I didn’t realize that art isn’t just “talent,” it’s also about passion, drive, and determination. And what I finally realized in 2011, when I began to do art again seriously is that I was never more fulfilled than when I was engaged in the “practice” of art. Nobody was more passionate about it. Nobody was more driven. And nobody was more determined to make my voice heard through visual art. I read, researched, experimented, and continually created art almost constantly. If I wasn’t sleeping, eating, or working at my “day” job, I was practicing my craft. This passion, wonder, and drive is evidenced in the massive body of work I’ve produced in just over 8 years.
Thousands of photographs, designs, illustrations, and paintings. In fact, I’ve produced (drawn, illustrated, painted, photographed) at least 1 piece of art every single day for the last 8 years.I hope that my work is a testimony that anyone can and should do art if they love it enough and if they want it badly enough. Art isn’t just for an elite few who are lucky enough to win the “talent” genetic lottery. Art is for everyone who is bold enough and determined enough to do it. Yes, talent helps, but art . . . art is for all of us.
These key ideas and values fuel everything I do at Chub And Bug. I long to create art and objects that will not only delight children, but also inspire them. I hope to create immersive magical worlds—both real and imaginary—where children can escape into and let their imaginations play. Places where anything is possible. Places in other words where grown-up kids and little kids can be and do great -- or even impossible--things. Because when all things are possible the mind opens and expands, allowing children to unleash the full potential of their creativity. When I was a child, I had a life-size poster of Peter Pan on my wall. It depicted the exact moment at twilight when Wendy and the boys fly with Peter Pan out of their nursery window to start a grand adventure. I used to fall asleep looking at the twinkling stars in that poster—dozing off into dreams imagining myself flying out with them on my own adventure. I dreamed the stories I would later write inspired by that poster. The mermaids that I draw and paint now are largely inspired from the first mermaids I encountered in Peter Pan. I hope my wall art , journals, toys, and school supplies will do the same for you and/or your child.
Although I only recently launched this website, you can shop without worries because I've been selling on Etsy since since 2013. In fact, I've sold over 4,000 prints and have many happy customers. My “serious” black and white photography has been purchased by celebrities, featured in magazines, and displayed in businesses and hotels around the world.
Please check out my 5-star-rated shop Lynn Langmade Photography, which has over 600 reviews from my customers raving about the quality of my products, the speed of delivery, and the friendly and warm customer service they received at my shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/LynnLangmade .You can also read awesome reviews from delighted customers here :)
