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Danguole Lekaviciute
168 Plays6 years ago
DANGUOLE LEKAVICIUTE is a creative living in Portland, Oregon. Born in Lithuania and raised/educated in Reno, Nevada, she found her creative outlet via a food and cocktail recipe blog that allowed her to hone her writing voice and photography skills that also formed a foundation for creative discipline. Pursuing that on the side, she spent 6.5 years post-college graduation working in state government in Nevada before moving to Oregon and slowly building the bones of a career in the creative industry. She currently serves as Creative Director of a food and beverage marketing agency and occasionally finds time to create personal work that refuses to pick a lane, ranging in themes from: the American West, the cosmos, nature, humor, and combinations of all of the above.
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Transcript
Introduction to Dangwala Lekovitchuza
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host, Ann Valente, editor and producer, Peter Bauer. We are here with Dangwala Lekovitchuza, and she is an artist, a photographer, videographer.
00:00:25
Speaker
in Portland, Oregon. She's the creative director for The Heart Creative. And, Dunguala, I just want to introduce you to the audience, and thank you for joining something rather than nothing podcast. Yeah, thanks for having me. Great. I'm going to launch right into it.
Childhood and Early Artistic Influences
00:00:43
Speaker
First question we ask is, what were you like as a young child?
00:00:52
Speaker
Really, really shy. I was really sensitive and also kind of a little adult. At parties and whatnot, I usually prefer to hang out with the adult, you know, stick to my mom and her friends. And she was actually a teacher. She taught at the school I attended back home in Lithuania at some point. And I'd like go to her classroom on breaks and have tea with her and her teacher friends.
00:01:21
Speaker
So in hindsight, that's super embarrassing and was probably really annoying. But yeah, throughout my life, I've of course had friends my own age, but I always kind of connected to people, you know, with more experience and hopefully more wisdom. And it always felt more comfortable to me to be around adults. And again, just really, really shy and timid. I found that folks that I've known have been greatly influenced. I mean, if they did gravitate towards,
00:01:51
Speaker
I mean, just older generations, whether it's their parents or grandparents, they definitely have a different outlook that they've developed. And it's a noticeable development. Do you think that's had, I mean, have you noticed that?
Impact of Older Generations on Artistic Growth
00:02:10
Speaker
And maybe in conversations with others, maybe it's impact on what you do or your art or how you are as a person?
00:02:19
Speaker
I think people like that tend to age backwards. So the older you get, the less you care and the more you take and the more out there you are, I think. At least that's been my experience. I feel like aging backwards is definitely a thing among people who were kind of old souls from the beginning and very shy.
00:02:44
Speaker
So from an early age, did you gravitate towards any forms of art? Did you ever identify yourself as an artist? Were you around artists? Where did that emerge? Was it right from the get-go? Yeah, definitely when I was a little kid, I took to drawing and painting very quickly. My older sister was into it, and I think I naturally just kind of
00:03:14
Speaker
followed in her footsteps. And we, um, we did a lot of drawing and arts and crafts and we were kids and I never thought much of it. I thought that's what everybody did with their older siblings, you know? And did you, so you mentioned painting and did you do like illustration? I mean, did you read a lot of books? Were those some of the influences? Yeah, definitely read a lot of books. Um,
00:03:40
Speaker
She used to play school with me when I was a kid. So she'd set up a little desk and play teacher and I would learn to read and we read together and drew together. And that's actually learned how to read by the age of four. And I think it was just because that's how my sister and I interacted. And she was really creative as a child herself. So I think that
Work at Heart Creative Agency
00:04:10
Speaker
really set me off on the path that I've pursued. So, Dungua, I mentioned at the beginning, you specifically list yourself as working in photography, videography, and creative director for Heart Creative. Can you explain a little bit more some of the work that you do and basically just some of your general approach to when you're looking to create?
00:04:40
Speaker
Um, yes. So, um, art creative is my day job and we're a small ish, but quickly growing, uh, women owned creative agency. Uh, we have a specific focus on food and beverage. So we develop recipes, shoot photo and video, manage social media and more kind of all marketing under one roof. Um, so my team creates the art, which is photography, stop motion, video, fluid motion video.
00:05:08
Speaker
Um, and then in my personal life, I do, I do like to create work for myself. I really haven't had much time to do that lately, but, um, that is the majority of how I express myself these days is through photo and sometimes video. And so one of the things I've seen in and been around I've talked about in, in previous episodes is how important it's been for me. Um, you know, haven't spent time, uh, lived
00:05:38
Speaker
Live near Portland visited and experienced a lot of art there One of the things I really enjoy whether it's like arts and crafts is is the there's so much creativity and expression that I see in Portland How does that impact what you do? I mean, do you find it as vibrant an atmosphere as I just described
Portland's Art Scene
00:06:05
Speaker
I definitely do. Yeah, that's what drew me to Portland when I moved here in 2014. Everybody seemed to be creating something. And it was a very collaborative process where, you know, maybe you don't have the money to fund your work, but you talk to somebody who can help you fill some of those gaps. And it's just a very collaborative, organic sort of mechanism. And I
00:06:33
Speaker
basically broke into the creative industry by just talking to people who are creating things. And it just happened very organically. I was working at a distillery doing farmer's markets just because I thought it would be fun. And I was really passionate about, you know, craft spirits and cocktails. And it was just something to kind of
00:06:57
Speaker
get me through until I figured out what I wanted to do next and I you know met people at farmers markets that were doing cool things that wanted some help with photography and Recipe development and writing so it just happened very organically and I don't think that could have happened Anywhere else that I've lived or experienced Portland's really special for sure How much of that did you know before going there?
Career Transition and Food Photography
00:07:25
Speaker
Um, some. I had started a food blog in 2010 or something like that. And it was really just a way for me to be creative and develop photography and develop a writing style. At the time I was working at the state legislature in Carson City. So I was a paralegal and editor writing
00:07:53
Speaker
editing legislation all day long, which was great and interesting, but not ultimately what I wanted to do. So I just started this little project as a creative outlet because I was bored and needed something to devote my creative energy to. And it just sort of grew from there. Eventually, I started getting freelance work for writing and for photography. And it was sort of enough to
00:08:23
Speaker
helped me as I moved to Portland and basically started over again. You had mentioned that Heart Creative is a woman-owned enterprise. How important is that for you and for your colleagues that work there? It definitely creates a different environment than I have ever experienced.
00:08:53
Speaker
It's just very collaborative, very sort of warm. And it's very much focused on, you know, making money, but we have to take care of our community. We have to take every care of each other. And I don't know that that's unique to a woman owned business. I'm sure there are plenty of businesses owned by men doing the right thing.
00:09:21
Speaker
I definitely felt very at home there from the get go. And I really, really like my team. I think it's a really great thing. And I think a part of it is when I've interviewed guests is, you know, is part of it is
00:09:38
Speaker
My questions are about them and like where they're, you know, being compelled to create art and to be creative, but also understanding a lot of time that that interacts so heavily with the environment, you know, the environment that you're in, whether it's the city or whether it's the particular, you know, industry or whether you're freed up to work on your art or you do it as as a hobby. I find it that it tends to be so important
00:10:07
Speaker
going back to yourself in and I alluded to this is, you know, whether it sounds like when you're younger, you had a drive or was both within the environment that you were was a creative environment. But the question is this is why do you create or why do you feel that you create?
Passion for Mastering New Skills
00:10:34
Speaker
It's just really fun.
00:10:37
Speaker
I find that I just like the idea of mastering something, whether it's bread making or caring for a particular kind of house plant or fixing a car. I just like the idea of starting from zero and growing something into a thing that you're proud to show off.
00:11:00
Speaker
I started trying to take star photos about five and a half years ago, right before I moved from Nevada, which is, you know, one of the best places to do it. Um, and the first time I got the faintest dots in the viewfinder, um, that was super exhilarating, even though, you know, it was objectively shitty star photography. So I've gotten to a place so that, um, and Oregon's a great place for it too, to be clear.
00:11:27
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Um, where I've come a really long way with that. And while I still do it, and if an opportunity arises to do it, I'm happy to move on to other things because I really feel like, you know, I took it from zero to a place where I feel really good about it. And I feel really good about sharing it. And I saw, I saw some of those and, and, and I really noticed them in, and enjoyed them. And I, I, uh, I adore.
00:11:53
Speaker
outer space I've you know a side hobby of mine has been trying to figure out you know what it is and studying without the math things like quantum mechanics and and astrophysics because I can't I can't navigate the formulas or or I don't remember being able to navigate the formulas but um really drawn to that um can you talk a little bit more like as far as
00:12:20
Speaker
You're talking about environments that are dark enough to be able to see out and then try to capture those images. And you described that moment when you saw that and you caught that. Can you just talk a little bit more about how that works? I've never done it before, and I know a lot of people haven't really tried to do it. What's been your experience with, as you described, star photography? Yeah. Basically, I started knowing nothing about it.
00:12:51
Speaker
And I knew that one of the best places to do it was Great Basin National Park, which is right on the border of Nevada and Utah. And I knew that I was leaving Nevada. It was just a matter of time. So I really took that last year to do all of the hikes that I wanted to do and really get the full experience of Nevada before I moved on. And I still go back. It's still home.
00:13:17
Speaker
But I just really wanted to soak it up as long as I could. So I went to Great Basin National Park, I think it was September or so of 2014. And I just gave it a shot. So you set up your camera on a tripod, you open the aperture, which is the hole that let's slide in as wide as possible.
00:13:44
Speaker
You figure out the focus by trial and error and you just let it go for 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds. There's a limit in terms of the shutter speed before it starts to trail and the stars, they move so they're not dots anymore, but little dashes. So unless you're intentional about that, you want to avoid it.
00:14:12
Speaker
Um, so I drove to this, I drove up and down this really windy mountain road at like 11 30 at night. And I, I had like gas station lunchables with me that I was stress eating at the same time. Um, and every spot was just like super windy and scary. So I eventually, um, turned around and found this really sort of open space. That was like a ranching exhibit. And I got out of the car.
00:14:39
Speaker
Um, after my eyes had adjusted to the light and I was just really struck by not only how purely dark it was, but also how purely quiet that's something that really struck me that I didn't expect to strike me because it's like being in outer space, you hear absolutely nothing. It's like being in a vacuum. Right. Um,
00:15:02
Speaker
So I took that in for a little bit and just started experimenting with focus and shutter speed and all of that stuff. And like I said, those first photos were objectively not good. But I got just a little bit of the Milky Way before the moon rose, because that's another thing. You have to kind of get the timing right in terms of moon phases and weather. So there are resources for all of that. You can't just go out there any time and expect to get
00:15:32
Speaker
really clear photos. So yeah, I got the slightest bit of the Milky Way. And I was just really, really thrilled by it and the possibility of what it would look like if I were actually good at this. So that sort of thing is really exciting to me. It's exciting to suck at something because you know you can master it sometime.
00:15:56
Speaker
And the main question for the show is why is there something rather than nothing? Did you get do you have any answer for that? And do you have an answer that? That comes from your experience there. I have
Philosophical Views on Existence
00:16:06
Speaker
to ask it now. I don't I don't I have no idea But I guess the best answer I have is so, you know, we can destroy and go back to nothing It'd be really boring otherwise for there to be nothing so, you know
00:16:25
Speaker
maybe we're in the matrix or a big video game and we just have to try to keep ourselves and our planet alive as long as we can and just start over again. That's a completely legitimate and useful answer.
00:16:42
Speaker
I just I felt I had to had to ask it at that and just just a bit more on that. Of course you could do that in It's a good environment. You had mentioned to do that in Oregon I believe probably southern Oregon or eastern Oregon as far as doing the star photography Basically anywhere south of the Dalles I usually go east and south Yeah, Condon is wonderful the Albert Desert is the best I've ever seen and
00:17:11
Speaker
for this sort of thing. So I'm still not done exploring it. I've been here for five years and I feel like there's still so much more I haven't covered. And I had, I had mentioned to you just a bit before, you know, prior to, you know, our recording here, um, that I saw within a lot of your images, a lot of your photography, a lot of stuff that you have on Instagram that you have, I felt the particular aesthetic that was striking.
00:17:39
Speaker
With the dark background and colors drawn out in the foreground, it's very noticeable and very exciting in general. Now, I think you started a little bit at describing an aesthetic, but would you take a stab at with what I'm seeing or what you're trying? It's funny you ask that because I don't know that I have a particular style anymore.
00:18:09
Speaker
I
Evolution of Artistic Style
00:18:10
Speaker
mean, I'm obviously drawn to anything dark and moody, and that tends to be the default and has historically been my shtick. But especially in the last year or so, I've started to feel a little bit itchy and boxed in by all of that. I really admire and sometimes kind of envy people who just, you know, they pick a lane and they stay there.
00:18:37
Speaker
So I started experimenting with more bold and graphic styles a little bit. And just sort of, you know, anytime I travel, I obviously take photos and there's no, you're not controlling the environment, you're not controlling the aesthetic. So it's just just what it is, you know. So again, yeah, that said, I haven't created personal work in a long time.
00:19:05
Speaker
But before I had my little identity crisis and started experimenting with other things, I really developed something that I miss, which is dark moody photography with some elements of illustration thrown in there. Or I guess if it's video, it's called rotoscoping, but it's an image with lines drawn into it, some shading, some color, if you're into that. But I usually just do like,
00:19:34
Speaker
little white lines. And sometimes it's subtle and sometimes it's not, but that was something that really felt unique to me. And, you know, my creative friends encouraged me to continue that because it's not something that we've seen much of. So at some point, I'll probably get my shit together and do lots more of that in 2020. But yeah, I would say that my my default is sort of dark and moody and I'm just trying to find ways to make it interesting.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, in 2020 is going to be the year. So yeah, it's a, it's a big, it's a big year. Um, so, uh, back to heart creative and environment that you, that you work in a question that I haven't asked in a few episodes, but I really like, um, I'd really like your thinking on it is,
00:20:29
Speaker
um, is is there a duty or do you feel there's a duty for artists to to to create or to And or help mentor other artists like is there an affirmative duty? Uh that you think artists have or creative types Yeah, um, I don't know if it's as much of a duty as a natural byproduct of creativity. Um, I think people are inherently creative and we see that mostly when we're
00:21:00
Speaker
children, right? But I think people inherently want to create. And I know that every time, you know, I go to Fine Art Museum, like I said, I used to draw and paint when I was a kid much more. And every time I see other people doing that, I get this overwhelming sense of, oh, my God, why don't I do this every day? This is so great. And you can do so much with it. And I just feel really inspired and excited by it. I don't really follow through. But I do think that it's it's an infectious thing. And I do think that
00:21:30
Speaker
It just happens naturally. I think people are inherently creative. Yeah, and that's that's one of the pieces that I think has been interesting in exploring this in this podcast is, you know, using questions to kind of interrogate, you know, some of these larger questions about why we're doing this stuff or, you know, what's behind it or is it a natural development?
00:21:58
Speaker
Um, but do you have a let's talk about, you know, specifically about art and we've been talking artists. I mean, do you have a definition of art? Um, or what do you see as art? Um, I don't know that I'm an artist all the time. I think I have an artistic job. Um, but to me, art is not commercial.
Art vs. Commercial Work
00:22:22
Speaker
And what I do is inherently commercial, you know, cause I gotta pay the bills.
00:22:26
Speaker
Um, so I think art is anything that goes beyond serving some kind of practical purpose. Um, you know, in the way that a building can be art, if it's designed with intention and aesthetics, um, it obviously goes beyond serving its purpose of, you know, housing things and people, and therefore it becomes architecture and therefore it becomes art. Um, and you know, sometimes as in the case of what I do for a living, the art
00:22:54
Speaker
is the practical purpose because you're using pretty imagery to sell things. And you could argue that it isn't art anymore. And there's a difference between being artful and artistic and being an artist. Like I have an artistic job, but I don't see that as art. I really love what I do and I'm lucky to do it, but I have no delusions about what it means and what it doesn't mean.
00:23:20
Speaker
it's beholden to something else, you know, commercial purposes and clients and ROIs and all of that stuff. And it can be really beautiful and have a different kind of value. But I don't think that true art is created for any commercial purpose. And if there's one thing that I feel as a defining characteristic, it's probably that.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, and you bring up a lot of interesting questions and problems. I think one of the things when we look to value art, say in the capitalist society, is how much did it sell for? What's the record price for a painting of this sort?
00:24:10
Speaker
I think one of the reasons why I like to ask these questions, because if we take away some of those components, how do we create value? Is it valuable? Is it a valuable work of art? And what if it was given away? What if it was traded? And I think it becomes a lot more problematic once you take into account some economic questions about answering the question, what is art?
00:24:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It combines so many different things like skills. Is it executed well and aesthetics? Does it look good? And then there's originality. And then I guess a much more difficult thing to gauge, which is purity of intention. Why did you create this? And is it for a commercial purpose? And it's OK if it is.
00:25:11
Speaker
Um, but you know, that's probably just a handful of ingredients you may or may not have in whatever you're creating. You know, all four of those is really truly something special, but it doesn't mean that having, you know, one or two or three of those components isn't worth anything. Like something can be executed really well and look really beautiful, but it's created to market something. In which case it, you know, it's, it's worthwhile and it's valuable, but it's, I don't know if it's art.
00:25:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think you bring that component of, you know, there's the object itself and the intention behind it really plays into it. We're talking with Don Gualla, Lekka Vichuta, and she, again, is the creative director at Heart Creative, talked about photography and hinted at some of the videography you do and been exploring
00:26:09
Speaker
these artistic questions. If you could pick somebody that you wanted to answer these questions that I've asked you, an artist, who would you pick?
Inspirations from Other Artists
00:26:24
Speaker
Who would you want to hear these answers from? Oh, like people who inspire me, maybe? Yeah. I really love Alexa Mead's work.
00:26:35
Speaker
She does some really, really trippy things with live action paintings that just look out of this world. I love her. There's also a woman I follow on Twitter and Instagram. Her name is Sarah McGonigal, who's this amazing shape-shifting makeup artist and photographer. So she creates these entire sets and worlds that are inspired by, you know,
00:27:05
Speaker
are pop culture movies, TV, and she models, she creates her own makeup looks and builds her own sets, takes the photographs and edits them herself. And it's just a really true creative wonder. So those are two people that I'm following closely these days and I'm really inspired by.
00:27:30
Speaker
I'd like, yeah, and I've started asking that question. I think folks in talking to artists and creatives, sometimes these larger conceptual questions are ones that they don't necessarily get a chance to get at. So I think sometimes I'm able to have some great conversations with folks who maybe sometimes might be like a little bit worn out by standard questions, but actually like,
00:27:57
Speaker
you know um you know these questions and uh so um and i i actually really like to hear um from folks who create and you know who inspires and who impacts them because it i say it just kind of like these threads and webs that come out of the work that i yeah that that i try to do um so uh one more final question is very very open-ended um uh
00:28:24
Speaker
And it's really for the listeners. What are the best ways to connect with the things that you do, the work that you do, and how can people connect with those pieces or the work that you do? Yeah, I don't have that much time to create personal work these days, but I'm hoping to change that, like I said.
00:28:50
Speaker
So I'm on instagram. It's just my first name dangwala And my agency is heart creative and we are at heart creative.co on instagram Um, so yeah, check it out uh dangwala has been so great, um to talk to you and I really wanted to um, thank you for your time and um
00:29:12
Speaker
There's a lot of particularly with the star photography and some of the things that you brought up that I'm really interested in taking a closer look at now. And I hope everybody that's listening kind of, you know, will have that same, you know, same impact on others. But I wanted to thank you for your time and for joining something rather than nothing podcast. Of course. Thank you so much. Have a great night. Thank you. You too. Thanks, Ken.
00:29:50
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing.