Laurie Canfield on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Laurie Canfield. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Laurie, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: When was the last time you felt true joy?
The most joyful times for me are when I get to spend time with all of my children together. I have six children and three grandchildren. The oldest four children – nicknamed “the Varsity Squad” – are adults who live in different parts of the country. Our two children that are still at home – nicknamed “the JV Team” – are 17 and 10. With so many schedules to coordinate, it is very difficult to get them all in one place under one roof, so I cherish each and every moment that I get to spend with each of them. Next summer my oldest son is getting married, and I will finally have the opportunity to be with my children and grandchildren to celebrate. I’m very much looking forward to having them all together for the first time since 2022.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Laurie Canfield. I wanted to be an artist or a teacher since I was a child, and I grew up to be an art teacher – the best of both worlds! I love teaching art to other so much that I opened Sunshine Sunflower Studio in 2020 so that I could offer opportunities to create with clay to our whole community! In addition to running my own business and teaching classes, I also still love to create my own artwork. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life!

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
I was born to older parents – my dad was almost 55 and my mom was 39 when I was born. Many from their generation expected children to be “seen and not heard”, and as an only child living in an apartment in Queens, NY, I spent a lot of time alone in my room “entertaining myself”. I think this is when I truly fell in love with art. It provided escape, adventure, and I loved being able to take anything that was in my imagination and create it on paper. Luckily, my parents were progressive for their time, they nurtured my artistic gifts and they always instilled in me that I could do anything I set my mind to. I was encouraged to try, explore, fail, try again. My parents’ faith in me, and their encouragement and support laid the foundation for me to feel powerful enough to take on many of the challenges that I faced throughout life.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I didn’t fit in very well when I was growing up. When I was 7, my dad retired from his job and we moved from NY to FL as most people in the 1980s did. The town we moved to was very rural and located on Florida’s Nature Coast, so everyone liked boating, fishing, camping, and hunting…except me. I enjoyed making art, reading, and playing the violin. I fit in like a square peg in a round hole throughout my school years never really feeling like I belonged to any particular group and always feeling a bit like an outsider. I wish I could tell my younger self that it was okay to be different. To ignore the bullies, the naysayers and the haters. To not try to be something that I wasn’t to fit in or make other people happy. I wish I could tell my younger self to lean into her gifts and let her true self shine because that is where happiness lies.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
I would say 98% is completely authentic. Once I became an adult and realized that no one else’s opinions mattered, I embraced myself and my gifts and have spent the last 25 years building the life that I am proud of. I can unapologetically say that I love my family with all my heart, I am a homebody, I love to make art and read books, I enjoy writing when I can. I am terrible at fixing things, I can’t do math well, and I don’t like to cook.

But because I was raised to be resilient and independent, it is very difficult for me to share the 2% of times when I feel sad, frustrated or depressed. I really struggle to ask for help or express my emotions when I am hurt or angry. So, I usually keep smiling and saying everything is okay even if it isn’t.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What pain do you resist facing directly?
I still can’t bring myself to sprinkle my mom’s ashes. She died in 2021 from complications from Parkinson’s disease and COVID. She wanted me to sprinkle her at the beach at my grandmother’s house on the island of St. Martin. My grandmother passed in 2013, and the house was destroyed by a hurricane in 2017, so it is just a ruin now. When I was little we would go to St. Martin and spend a month every year with my grandma and my family on the island, my husband and I were married at my grandmother’s house so she could attend, so I am very attached to this place. Having to go there and face seeing my grandmother’s home destroyed and not having the comfort of seeing my uncles while having to also face the loss of my mother with such finality is just too heartbreaking to face right now. I’m not sure when I will be ready, but I know I will have to do it one day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sunshinesunflower.com
• Instagram: @sunshinesunflowerstudio
• Facebook: @sunshinesunflowerceramics
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sunshinesunflowerstudio