Coffee People ft. Emily Lavalier, EmLavArt & Hammer Travel
This is a Bonus Coffee People Coffee With episode featuring Emily Lavalier. She is the Owner and Artist behind EmLavArt, and trip leader at Hammer Travel, where she and a team guide adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities on fun-filled vacation adventures.
This is a special bonus episode where we have a cup of coffee with someone from outside the coffee industry.
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Guests: Emily Lavalier, Artist & Travel Guide
Based: Minneapolis, MN
Find Online: https://www.emlavart.com/ • @emilylavalier.art • https://hammertravel.org/
What they drink: Black coffee with cream
This is a Bonus Coffee With episode featuring Emily Lavalier. She is the Owner and Artist behind EmLavArt, and a trip leader at Hammer Residences, where she and a team guide adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities on fun-filled vacation adventures.
I had the privilege of meeting Emily about two decades ago, when we were young adults hustling at hospitality jobs, and looking toward a future where we'd get to follow our creative dreams.
Coincidentally, the restaurant we both worked at, The Ol' Fashioned, in Madison, WI, was also the first place I brewed coffee for anyone–that includes myself. In retrospect, if you sat at the bar during a Sunday brunch in the early 2000s and ordered an espresso, I offer you many, many apologies. I was not a good barista.
I wanted to chat with Emily to learn more about her art career and the entrepreneurial challenges, risks, and fears that come with stepping outside a traditional career.* I also wanted to learn more and draw attention to the work she does with Hammer Travel and Hammer Residences. The work they are doing goes so much further than planning trips.
I don't consider myself an artist like Emily. I'm more of a creative tinkerer, or creative raccoon, who is always trying new things. Emily has found something she's passionate about, and it comes out in her artwork. Success as an artist comes in many forms. Take time to support local artists whenever you can.
As for her work with Hammer Travel, what a cool gig, and one that takes a certain type of person, one who encompasses care and patience and a willingness to problem solve. Skills that certainly come in handy in her art career as well.
*Full disclosure: We have an original and several prints from EmLavArt safely stored until we settle into our new home in the Pacific Northwest.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- When Emily started, she wasn't seeing her style of art in the world. She works to create high-density collage out of paper, primarily magazines, but some mixed media, as well. She's expanding into new forms of collage art.
- She starts with a design in mind and then hunts through the magazine and paper collections for the right material in terms of color, texture, size, and shape.
- I like the idea that what I'm seeing isn't actually what the materials were designed to convey. They've been transformed, reduced down into a component, and reassembled to offer an entirely different experience visually and emotionally. We have an original avocado, as well as a few cocktail prints for our bar area.
- Hammer Travel adventurers are travelers first, and humans who happen to have abilities requiring more foresight and effort during the planning and execution of a trip, second.
- Emily kind of pushed past it, but the Hammer Travel service offers great value, not just to their travelers, but to others who come into contact with their group. It isn't their responsibility to do so, but engaging with differently-abled people not only inspires others, but it also offers an example for other differently-abled people and the support team in their lives.
- Between the travel guide and artist roles, Emily uses quite a few overlapping skills, like staying organized, thinking on her feet, and being flexible with her expectations.
As for the art, what makes for good or bad art? Is there even a thing that delineates the two? I think art encompasses the story of its creation and the emotion it evokes. You might think it is only what you see. Please share your opinions on what is or isn't good or bad art in comments wherever you're listening. I'm curious to learn more about your thoughts, while I sip a cup of coffee...is coffee art? Mind blown.
- Working in the group home setting also helped Emily to be more aware of the challenges that the larger community of intellectual and/or developmentally disabled people face. Being a guide on the trip experiences reminds her to put herself in someone else's shoes before passing judgment. In turn, she's been inspired to offer up more grace to the world around her.
- It's okay to be niche. You don't need a million followers to create a career.
FREE COFFEE? Yeah, No...Yeah! You want some. New paid Supporters of the Coffee People podcast receive a code for a free bag of Yeah, No...Yeah Coffee from our friends at Relative Coffee Company in Minneapolis, MN.
CLASSIC INTERVIEWS:
We chat with Chris O'Brien of Coffee Cycle Roasting about the challenges and motivations that come with opening a second coffee shop location.
