Wasilla artist uses G.I. Bill to pursue illustration career

PALMER — Wasilla artist Lori Teich said she started painting for a living because she “didn’t wanna be anybody’s worker bee” anymore.

After graduating early from Burchell High School in 2004, Teich entered the U.S. Coast Guard as a fireman, working on life boat engines and doing search and rescue as a crewman at Station Umpqua River in Reedsport, Oregon.

Hanging up her paintings in Magpie Clothing Exchange for the Palmer Art Walk on Saturday, Sept. 12, Teich may not have looked the part of a military woman. Though slightly taller than average, she is somewhat soft-spoken in conversation, and has a gentle demeanor. Most of her art is colorful, almost whimsical.

But that’s just the nature of the paintings in the show. Some of her works, featured online, have a darker, more outspoken side — no doubt the result, in part, of her time in the armed forces.

“A lot of the things we saw took an emotional toll” she said. “I would go to the barracks and create whatever I could to get my mind off of things.”

Death was one of those things. After rescuing or recovering the bodies of so many young people, Teich became keenly aware of the impermanence of life, and how quickly a person can perish without having first checked off their “bucket list” items.

“Life can be taken in the blink of an eye,” Teich said. “You better do what you think you are on this earth to do before it’s too late.”

For Teich, it’s art. But it took her years after being a search and rescue person to fully realize that. She stayed in the Coast Guard, but chose to become food service specialist (FS), and soon worked her way up to an FS2 who ran her own galley on an 87-foot-long ship based in Grand Isle, Louisiana. There was an artistic element to it — around Thanksgiving one year, she found herself sculpting turkeys out of Rice Krispies Treats, “just to make people smile,” she said.

But cooking wasn’t exactly her passion, or what, in particular, made her the happiest.

“What made me happy was making others smile,” Teich said.

In the military, even as a cook, that was sometimes a difficult task.

Time for a change

Remembering her “life’s too short” mantra, Teich took her own advice and left the Coast Guard in 2010 to be a stay-at-home mom. She had also separated from her husband (who was also in the Coast Guard), and was looking for a change.

Since she was eligible for college assistance through the post-9/11 G.I. Bill program, Teich figured “it would be dumb of me not to use” it. Going to school full-time while raising two young girls would be a challenge, she thought, but with university housing and tuition covered, the opportunity was too good to pass up. The only question was what she would use it for, and the answer by that time was obvious: art.

But as she had some hoops to jump through to determine her eligibility, in the meantime, she went to work.

For the last four years, Teich has been able to support her family by painting at home, posting photos of the art to Facebook, and selling it to whoever is interested. The paintings usually sell “within the day,” she said, which could be in part due to the fact that, contrary to first appearances, she has “a loud mouth.”

Wasilla artist Sandy Hoeft, who has known Teich since she and Hoeft’s daughter were in grade school, says it helps that Teich is always “pounding the pavement” looking for places to hang her artwork.

“Every opportunity she gets, she puts it out there,” Hoeft said, though just advertising through friends on Facebook seems to be sufficient.

Plus, Teich is always painting, Hoeft said, meaning she can produce a lot in a shorter amount of time than most. And since she produces so many pieces — each one takes an hour to an hour and a half, Teich said — she can afford to price them lower. That way, she doesn’t have to turn people away because her work costs more than they can afford.

“Sometimes it just feels better to (say) ‘Yeah I’ll give you a deal because you really like that painting and it makes you feel good,’” she said.

‘Where dreams come true’

With a healthy portfolio established and the G.I. Bill paperwork finalized, Teich finally began taking classes at Mat-Su College this fall. Her intent is to eventually transfer to a Disney Institute on the West Coast, and ultimately become an illustrator for Pixar.

“It’s just a matter of when,” she said.

Teich said she had always appreciated the educational element to Disney movies, and that the artwork is an important aspect in teaching children life lessons.

“If it’s visually stimulating, the kids’ll pay attention better,” she said.

And while her work will likely be more personally gratifying when her children can enjoy it on such a scale, Teich said the main goal is just to continue supporting her family by doing what she loves.

“If I can just live off it … I will be the happiest person in the world,” she said.

See more of Lori Teich’s art at facebook.com/Paintbylori, or follow her on Instagram @eatwheat.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.