Navigating Artistic Paths: Cerraeh Dutchess Laykin's Inspirational Journey

What if you could transform childhood playtime passions into a thriving creative career? Join us as we welcome Cerraeh Dutchess Laykin, better known as Dutchess, a multi-talented artist who reveals the secrets of nurturing creativity from a young age. Dutchess reflects on her formative years surrounded by a tapestry of artistic influences from her mother, grandmother, and aunt, recounting playful memories of drawing gowns and playing dress-up. Even within the confines of a strict household, her ingenuity and family's love for photography carved a path that would ultimately lead her to become an accomplished photographer and fashion designer.

In this captivating episode, Dutchess opens up about her dynamic journey through various creative landscapes, from photography to fashion design and eventually, to the bold world of tape art installations. She candidly discusses the trials of managing ADHD and the burnout that comes with long hours in front of a computer, offering a grounded perspective on the importance of business savvy and financial management in sustaining a creative career. Her story is a testament to the power of resilience and the necessity of continuous self-reinvention, providing listeners with valuable insights into making a lasting and lucrative impact in the art world. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation with a true visionary committed to pushing creative boundaries.

Chapters

• 0:00 Journey of Creativity and Manifestation
• 15:27 Entrepreneurship, Burnout, and Reinvention

Transcript

Michelle: 0:00

Welcome to WhozYourMama, a podcast focusing on tomorrow's future, which are our kids, educators, teachers, parents, all encompassing with the goal of understanding that our brain is a muscle that we can exercise to control the speed in the direction that we want. Let's go, y'all. The time is now. Duchess Laykin, welcome to who's your Mama.

Dutchess: 0:25

Hello Michelle, Thanks for having me.

Michelle: 0:34

I'm so excited to be here. Well, I'm excited to have you on here as well. So many people know you as Duchess. You know sometimes, as the saying goes, jack of all trades, good at nothing goes, jack of all trades good at nothing. Creatively speaking, jack of all trades good at so many things, especially creatively thinking. And so you've really had quite the journey, and I'm excited for you to share your journey, from both a personal and professional artistic standpoint. You motivate so many people, and so we are ready to go on on the journey with you, so I will turn it over to you.

Dutchess: 1:19

I guess I've always been a creative person. You know I grew up in a family of very talented, creative artists and I didn't really realize that until well later, later on. So things like drawing and dressing myself up and, you know, just being self-expressed came very naturally to me and that's sort of I remember as a child I was always drawing beautiful pictures of women's dresses and gowns and Cinderella's and you know all that stuff and I always fantasized about being a fashion designer since as long as I can remember. And I always fantasized about being a fashion designer since as long as I can remember. You know I remember five years old, I was drawing beautiful gowns and princesses. You know I was like, oh, I want to do this when I grow up. You know costume or fashion and I always loved to dress up, play, dress up and run around the neighborhood, run around the house playing, dress up and run around the neighborhood, run around the house playing dress up so fashion.

Michelle: 2:24

Was there something in your somebody that or someone that influenced you for specifically how you started expressing yourself that way at the beginning?

Dutchess: 2:35

As I can remember, my aunt Sylvia, who's also an artist, and my grandmother. I think those two were the most influential on me, you know, as a little child playing dress-up also my mom. But my aunt used to bring over these giant bags of clothes and she had fabulous clothes and she would give me and my cousin, her daughter, these bags of clothes to play dress-up with every year for Christmas and we would just go to town and, you know, put everything on and run around. And my grandmother I just remember her and her turbans. You know she was at this like 1920s vibe and I as a child was wearing turbans since as long as I can remember as well.

Dutchess: 3:21

I like the glamorous look with the long cigarette holder and these gowns and these turbans, and feeling fabulous.

Michelle: 3:27

How old were you when that? What the memories that you're describing right now?

Dutchess: 3:31

I'm talking my earliest memories five, six, seven years old right putting whoever they are.

Michelle: 3:37

Talk about the between as kids, which is again part of the motivation of who's your mama setting things in earlier in life in your mind to have life skills is five to seven is a really is really formidable times Super important time.

Dutchess: 3:56

Yeah, that's very formidable. Um, I I would say like because of those influences when I was at that age, I mean that kind of set the path for me. I've always been, you know, into fashion, styling, self-expression. I did grow up in a rather strict household so I wasn't allowed to really be very self-expressed in other areas of my life, like my room or even the way I dressed when I went out in the real world. So I had to play a lot on my own and find my own creativity. But yeah, those years I think were just so very influential.

Michelle: 4:41

If I may. When you say so, if I'm understanding because I think a lot of people will really resonate with what I just heard it was you could be creative and just throw so many things on and be free, yet in your room things had to be in order, so it gave you that kind of creative freedom.

Dutchess: 5:05

Yeah, it was my first creative outlet. Let's say, like I said, my mom was pretty strict with me. I wasn't allowed to wear makeup, or I wasn't allowed to wear what I wanted to wear when we went out together or, like you know, just out in the real world. So I had to just like play on my own and sometimes sneak out of the house and put my makeup on later.

Michelle: 5:32

Which we're not condoning, by the way.

Dutchess: 5:35

But well, you know we are.

Michelle: 5:36

We are encouraging creative freedom, but but you do like that's part of what the outlets are. If you can't express yourself at home, what's your environment like? You find ways.

Dutchess: 5:46

What you're doing children will always find ways to express themselves. Some, some people, some kids do it through drawing. You know, I also was doing a lot of drawing, um, or writing or or making things, or, or knitting, or making jewelry or ceramics, whatever it it is. I mean, find your thing and just be creative and you know, be you basically.

Michelle: 6:14

Yeah.

Dutchess: 6:15

Yeah, but just be yourself, but yeah. So I also grew up in a family of photographers amateur photographers but my father was avidly taking pictures of every moment, all the things, all the time movies with those old super eight and 16 millimeter cameras. And I didn't realize till later that that little shutter bug in him really did affect the rest of us in the family. We all became shutterbugs, so we all took a lot of pictures all the time. So later in life I ended up becoming a photographer as well.

Michelle: 6:54

You do take some great pictures yeah thank you.

Dutchess: 6:58

But going back to the fashion stuff, like you know, I said to myself when I was a child you know seven, eight years old like I want to be a fashion designer when I grow up. And I want to myself when I was a child you know, seven, eight years old like I want to be a fashion designer when I grow up and I want to be an astronaut. Hell, I want to be the first fashion designer in space. That's what I said to my diary and to my friends. And sure enough, you know, as the years went on I did become a fashion designer and I love astronomy. I still am an avid pursuer of astronomy and, you never know, maybe I will be in outer space one day, because these days you can do that right.

Michelle: 7:36

Absolutely. I mean aim high and I think there's so many different things in what you said in terms of that inspirational aim high manifestation. Think outside the box.

Dutchess: 7:51

And write down things that you really want, especially when you're young. Write it down in your journal, your diary, and look at it later in life and you'll realize you'll probably have actually manifested everything that you wanted, because so far I have Almost everything that I wrote in my diaries has come to fruition and you feel like, when you go back and you look at that, which leads me to another question how often do you go back and how far back in time do you go?

Michelle: 8:19

is there any?

Dutchess: 8:20

I mean I do still have all my old diaries and every you know. Once in a blue moon I'll go back and open one up and I'll think, oh, that's funny, I wrote that down then, well, it came true.

Michelle: 8:32

So it's just when you're when you're thinking, is there something that and and I say this because I think there's a flip of the coin in my head in life. So you know, trigger versus spark or sparkle. So is there something that triggers or sparks a memory that makes you go back to look or encourages you?

Dutchess: 8:56

I should say no, no, it's just. Sometimes you want to trip down memory lane and open up an old book and read it. You know.

Dutchess: 9:03

I just happen to do that. Not everybody saves their diaries but I do and and I think it's just fun, I think that's you know there there is a lot of power in in vision boards and and mana, using visual tools to manifest what you want in your future and you don't really know how it's going to unfold. But often case it does unfold because you're you're putting like more energy and intention onto something by making it visual, whether that's writing it down or doing a collage or photos or both and and I've just found that like that actually is the case, like I wrote these things down, many other things that have all come true. I remember writing down in one of my diaries that I wanted to live in London and, sure enough, I ended up living in London for four years in my mid-twenties.

Michelle: 9:53

I couldn't agree more and I think that, over time, people have realized that we have been doing things unconsciously in terms of manifesting how we work our minds. You know personally, professionally, as somebody who's for many years ago hi, hi, hi, fuggsy athlete is the visualization I was manifesting without even realizing I was yeah, you see it, you believe it, you do it and kind of on that note.

Michelle: 10:29

So your tape art is very much supports your words that you're describing. So which is what's behind me? And I said to you and yours as well, and I remember saying to you I want to create a platform on who's your Mama that shows that we can control our minds it's a muscle and for people to understand that they're not alone and there's communities. Whatever you identify, it's not a roller coaster, it's a train which you can control the speed. You didn't get off on the wrong track, you got off on a different one. So what do you need in that moment in time? And then you created what's behind me, which looks very similar to what, in some ways, what you did, taken the journey to understand yourself, creatively speaking, from where you decided you were at before and how you wanted to progress to here. So continue taking us on that journey.

Dutchess: 12:02

Well, I think we need to rewind a little because, well, we haven't even gotten to the tape art part yet, I haven't even gotten to the photography part yet, or the graphic design part. I need to give you a little context, to kind of explain to you and your audience how my creative life has evolved and how it all ties in together to where I am now. So I'll just give you a brief summary. Like I said, as a child my dream was to be a fashion designer.

Dutchess: 12:33

Through my you know formative years, teens, into my 20s, my journey was kind of all over the place. I was looking for, you know signs, but I finally did go to fashion design school in my early 20s I was about 20. So I pursued a career in fashion After design school at FIDM. I worked in the industry in LA for only a couple of years before I realized, oh, I hate this, this is not what I want, this is not what I signed up for, this is not what they taught me Meaning. They did not teach me anything in that school about what I really needed to know in the real world, in the business. They didn't teach me the business.

Michelle: 13:18

So specifically cause I'm sure people can relate to that. What do you mean?

Dutchess: 13:21

Well, I'm telling you, um, they didn't teach me the business skills that you need to be a functioning designer. I mean, I just thought designing was just going to be fun and creative and drawing all day long, but it wasn't. There's very little bit of it. So I got a little bit turned off by fashion pretty quickly and pivoted into graphic design and that was, um, based on a, basically just an accident. I moved to london. I needed a job.

Dutchess: 13:53

Somebody offered me a job doing graphic design. I was like this looks interesting, this looks like fun. I love art and lines. Hmm, yeah, make a note of that. And and I I started doing graphic design. Mind you, I was always doing photography in the background, as a hobby. So I already had like a sense for composition and I already had an affinity for design and color and shapes and art in general. So I ended up doing graphic design for maybe about 10 or 12 years, and in the background I was always doing photography as a hobby. Well, so eventually I started to burn out on the graphic design because you know it just I don't know ran its course for me after about 12 years and this friend of mine basically encouraged me to pursue photography. He saw something in me said I think you'd be a great photographer here.

Michelle: 14:54

Can I just pause right there and ask you at any point in that journey, still going back to my question that I asked you before had you learned the business skills that you said that they didn't teach you in school?

Dutchess: 15:09

No, I did not get to learn anything about business, meaning I never took any classes in it. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I was just winging it and doing whatever I needed to do, and sorry about that, so you know. Then I pursued a career in photography. I ended up in Paris after London and again more self-taught photography. I did take one course in Paris while I was there and found that I loved photography more than anything and I started doing commercial photography for years and then eventually fine art photography and did that for 10 or 12 years Until it started to burn out again.

Michelle: 15:59

What do you think that for people listening? What from your perspective? What were the reasons why you burnt out in the areas.

Dutchess: 16:12

For me personally, the burnout is from two things. One, I had a hard time sitting for a long time like sitting at a chair at a computer doing graphic design and photography. Editing for long periods of time really was difficult for me.

Dutchess: 16:28

And I didn't really realize then why I have ADHD and it's just really hard for me to sit that still and focus for a long time. I didn't realize that then but that was a real struggle for me. And two was not really having the business background and knowing how to succeed financially in these businesses that I was an entrepreneur running everything myself and I just didn't have the business mind, the business background and the foundation that I needed.

Michelle: 17:00

And those are two areas that so many people not just that are creative, but no doubt that aren't creative can relate to, and that's why I wanted to make sure you visit that Is the business and then, like you said, adhd is how that impacted, why you moved on the way that you did and why you're feeling.

Dutchess: 17:22

Look, when you have ADD, you focus and you concentrate on the things you're interested in, and once you're no longer interested, it's like see you later. And that's why I've also pivoted so many times and reinvented myself many times over again. There's nothing right and wrong about that, it is what it is, and I'm happy that I'm able to take a leap and reinvent myself whenever I want to. And let me just continue the story a little bit. So after I got more, you know, frustrated with photography, and it was really just like I just couldn't sit that that much anymore. It was. It was killing my body, it was killing my mind. But then, by total chance, I made a top that had a hood on it. It's something that I couldn't find in the stores, and I figured out how to make it.

Dutchess: 18:10

Like you know what, I still have some tools from those days back in in in fashion design school 20 years ago. I still have a sewing machine. I thought I could figure out how to make this thing on my own and I did. And before you knew it, everyone wanted one. And then, all of a sudden, within a month or two, I had a whole collection. And there you go I became a fashion designer 20-something years later, an actual fashion designer, and I just ran with it and I realized, oh, I'm finally making something that makes sense to me, something that I can do for others, something that people want. I now can remember all the lessons I had in actually making things in fashion school, but I still didn't know the business.

Michelle: 18:55

And I think that's a really good. And going back into the fashion, going into fashion design business, for myself.

Dutchess: 19:00

After already running two businesses as an entrepreneur, this is now my third entrepreneurship business. That's when I really started to take it seriously and start to teach myself the business side of it.

Michelle: 19:13

And I think that's a really great place for us to stop before we go on to. I think there's going to be part two and three to this, because starting there with business and how you grew that out and understood through time that here are the areas that I need to understand more about, to take control in a different way what I want for what I say I want well.

Dutchess: 19:43

I think it's really important for for your listeners to know that it's great to be creative, it it's great to have a creative career, but learn business and finance as well. Know how to manage your money, know how to figure out. You know the maybe not so fun side, but you need to know it. You need to know the business, and this is where I'm at now. Like I'm done with fashion too, and I've now gone into the art world, exactly where I've always wanted to be as an artist. Like you mentioned before the tape art. This is what I do. I do installations using tape as my medium, and I now have a much more of a groundwork for my, for my business side of it and how to how to make this a lucrative career.

Michelle: 20:31

Well, I think, kind of like the tape art in the background. We just went up the triangle, the pyramid. The line to the next is going to be part two and we'll get to the end, but this isn't the end of of of going on the journey with you. Thank you so much for being on here. I have no doubt, just like your tape art and so many other things, you are going to inspire people and open up doors for them to understand that the time is now and you're your own advocate in life. So, thank you so much for being on here.

Dutchess: 21:12

So we look forward to having you again.

Michelle: 21:13

Let's go, y'all. The time is now. Thank you for tuning in to who's your Mama, and I look forward to collaborating from a community standpoint for the next episodes.