Wiradjuri woman and Yarpa member, Lani Balzan, has turned her passion and love for art into her own thriving art and graphic design business.

Lani’s products not only include incredible art pieces, but also a number of home decor products and jewellery.

“I paint on emu eggs, I do earrings, I do jars and bread boards. I don’t limit myself to a canvas, I like to think that I can paint on anything.”

For Lani, art has always been a way of life.

“I always had a connection to painting. My grandmother and I always practiced art and used different types of material.”

Lani says after some encouragement, her career as an artist took off.

“I started painting again for family and friends a few years ago and they started telling me I should sell them. Then I entered my first ever competition in Penrith. I won, and that felt fantastic. Then I entered Songlines for the NAIDOC poster in 2016 and I also won that. Since then, I started my business and it’s just grown from there.”

As a mum of four boys, having the freedom to run her business from home is a way to connect with culture and pass on the art practice to her children.

Lani says, “I get to be around my children and do what I love. My children get to see what I create. They sit with me and watch me paint and sometimes paint with me. We also get to go and gather materials on country.”

More recently, she’s added graphic design to her services and supports small businesses in their logo creation. “I love helping our smaller businesses create their logos to suit their company or business. This gives it that special meaning and story behind it. That’s what our culture is all about – having that story and connection to what your business is representing. I get really honoured that they come to me to ask me to do that for them. It’s beautiful because I know that it’s something that’ll be special to them.”

Lani is also well known for her design for the NRL St George Illawarra Dragons 2019  Indigenous round jersey.

An opportunity that’s lifted her profile and provided more business.

“I get requests for different artworks. Sometimes it’s really personal. Then I get commission work where they want their totem and connections to where they’re from. Our paintings have these beautiful stories behind them and to be able to give that to someone is really special.”

Lani was told about Yarpa through a close friend. Since then, she’s used Yarpa’s business coach to grow and extend her business.

“I couldn’t have been more pleased with the level of service I received after signing up with Yarpa. I was contacted immediately on the phone by a lovely business coach, who was very helpful, informative and flexible to my schedule. In the same week showed me how to implement positive changes and new strategies to grow my business.”

You can find more of Lani’s work on her website www.lanibart.com.au

If you’re an Indigenous business owner and would like more business support to grow, contact Yarpa today.

Yarpa also offers many online workshops for business owners. Check out our events page for more details.