The Role of Art in Emotional Expression: Connection through creativity with Lauren Morsley 

 

Written by Imogen Sullivan (July 2025)

 

Scottish illustrator, muralist, and printmaker Lauren Morsley uses these mediums to share stories. Lauren has illustrated for books such as Scotland: The People, The Places, The Stories, written by Chae Strathie. She has brightened up local public spaces across Scotland and is supplied across the world. Through her vivid, joyful illustrations, Lauren brings stories to life, creating connections between people and places. I especially adore the silly character play- mostly the Dancing Duck, but you might love the Frog, which is my close second. Within this interview, we wonder how creativity has been an emotional outlet for Lauren throughout her life and how connection can be achieved through creativity.

 

Lauren has worked full-time on her brilliant business for four solid years now, achieving global reach and excellent feedback. However, stable success isn’t achieved overnight, Lauren explains she had started dabbling with this business idea alongside university. Post-university, more time could be dedicated to building on these foundations. “ I got myself a new part time job to keep me going finance wise and then used all my free time slowly building up my business. It took about 3 years to get to a point where I could quit my part time job and go fully freelance.”

 

Undoubtedly, it takes a lot of effort to sustain any business, so what initially drove Lauren Morsley to seek such an adventure “I grew up in a household where creativity was always encouraged and seen as a valuable thing to do, which I feel very lucky to have parents who were like this.” she explains “ This allowed me to really explore my artistic side and develop skills from a young age I think. It also meant I always saw it as a career option, but that it would take a lot of persistence to make it happen. “

 

After experimenting with different forms of being creative, landing on illustration allowed Lauren to feed her clear natural story-telling ability, “ I grew up being inspired by other illustrators like Ralph Steadman and Maurice Sendak and I just really wanted to draw stories. “ intentionally experimenting with multiple possibilities of illustrations “I found university quite tough in the first few years and I was still trying to find my ‘style’ or at least a way of working that I liked. Then I started learning screenprinting and ceramics and I just fell in love with the making aspect too. The more I learned, the more I couldn’t see myself doing anything else but creating!” 

 

“I think the reason I loved Illustration was that you could do so many different things with it. You can apply the skills to really anything from books to murals to products. So it keeps things interesting! I have found it important to also have creative outlets that aren’t my ‘job’ necessarily. So I have recently been doing creative interior things for my flat and also taking workshops to learn new creative skills for fun!”

 

Being playful as a deep thinker is admirable. I have a strong sense that Lauren is intentional within her illustration work, she is driven by a sense of achievement by positively impacting the world around her. Adding fun to small and large corners of the world is a domino effect for positivity- and Lauren knows that. But how does her creative domino effect personally impact her daily life “I think it helps me process everything. It helps me communicate feelings and thoughts that I might not even be very aware or conscious of at the time of making. Some people like to run to let off steam, some like to cook, but I like to be creative in some way and it’s just a natural thing I gravitate to.”

 

Human connection can be initiated through art, that’s no secret. I ask Lauren in what way does she appreciate other creative people she has in her life “I think I connect to other creatives more than most other people. We seem to have commonality not only with being creative but also how we see the world and what it could be.” lovingly adding “My creative friends seem to always be the most adventurous, the most empathetic and speak out the most for what they believe in! “

 

I couldn’t help but feel deeply moved by Lauren’s response when I asked how the creative people in her life shape her everyday world. 

 

“I truly believe creative people help keep positivity and hope for the world’s future.” - Lauren Morsley

 

It’s hard to disagree. To inspire, to challenge, and to nurture curious cultures, especially during times of political tension, is nothing short of a superpower. Meaningful change builds slowly, through countless small acts. When artists, writers, designers, musicians and makers continue to tell stories-across mediums, across languages- with courage and clarity, translating the experiences of minorities into the universally understood language of art, change becomes not just possible, but inevitable. And perhaps, along the way, they remind us to enjoy the process- to add colour, energy, and imagination to the grey.