Hello, and welcome to my webpage. It is my hope that you will enjoy not only my art, but also the journey that I am on as I create it.
I am a 57 year-old self-taught artist, and began to develop my skills only a few years ago. It's actually a rather interesting story.
Until 2009, I thought that I didn't have a creative bone in my body, as they say. I had completely forgotten that, as a young person I had produced some very special art in elementary and junior high schools. I even won a school-wide art contest in 7th grade. However, I went to a specialized career high school (the High School for the Health Professions in Houston -- now DeBakey High School), and they didn't offer art as an elective. I entered the academic track and worried more about grades than the crayons and glue and yarn I had enjoyed just a few years earlier. As the years passed, I internalized the message that I wasn't gifted at all in the visual arts.
In 2007, I was blessed with a rich and fulfilling relationship with my first Spiritual Director. Madeleine was a gifted artist who happened to have late-stage ovarian cancer. Despite her knowledge that she only had a short time to live -- perhaps precisely because of this knowledge -- she took me under her wing in matters spiritual and artistic. I didn't realize at the time how closely related these two things are. She was my first mentor, and a gift beyond my limited imaginings.
Madeleine had been keeping a visual journal since her diagnosis, and convinced me that simple magazine collage would be good for my spiritual and psychological health. I began to fill pages with cut and carefully placed images interspersed with prose and poetic reflections. This practice was deeply satisfying, enriching, inspirational, healing, and exciting.
Madeleine died in 2008. We had only 6 months together, but her impact on my life will be, I know, lifelong and indelible.
It didn't seem so at first, though. I took a hiatus from all things artistic for almost 1 1/2 years, but in the summer of 2009, I stumbled across an Artist Trading Card (ATC) site online. These tiny, baseball card-sized works of art are created and traded by artists all over the world on sites like http://www.atcsforall.com/. I didn't know it then, but my life-changing artistic journey had begun in earnest.
I immersed myself in the challenges on these ATC sites for over a year, learning about different media (acrylics, watercolors, colored pencils, pastels, etc.) and different techniques. I was exposed to more art and artists than I could have found in years if I'd been studying independently, alone. It was an inspirational goldmine, and I recommend art cards to anyone who is just gaining their legs in visual creative expression.
I made my first larger piece with great fear and trembling during the summer of 2010, inspired by a trip to visit my daughter in Hawai'i. That was a scary step, but I never looked back.
Since 2010, I have created multiple assemblages, coordinated three profoundly satisfying cooperative large group art projects, discovered an affinity for art photography, and established my niche as an abstract collagist. My work is deeply rooted in the exploration of psychological, spiritual, and cultural concepts and relationships.
The collage techniques that I have developed over time are, I have come to realize, unique. Although many people associate collage with the manipulation of printed images (particularly from magazines), my work is different. I utilize "found" papers - vintage correspondence, maps, sheet music, and book pages, as well as ephemera such as train tickets, stamps, and even old prescriptions (!) - in concert with color from tissue papers and patterned napkins. I do not use scissors - everything is torn by hand - and multiple layers are vital to creating the textures and depth that are hallmarks of my work. These techniques result in expressionistic images which are not only pleasing (or challenging) to the eye but which also compel a visceral emotional response.
Over these past few years, I have been blessed by an artist residency at the Grunewald Guild in Leavenworth, Washington, by my affiliation with the JoMar Visions Art Gallery in Houston, and by my involvement in the Visual Arts Alliance, also here in Houston. In addition, a series of my therapy-related collages are being used by the staff of The New Orleans Institute for PTSD Recovery in their nationwide teaching seminars for trauma therapists.
My artistic passions have come to include much more than simply creating my own works, however. Due to my own long-held misunderstandings regarding the concept of creativity, it is terribly important to me that I encourage others to open their eyes to the creative potential of every single human being out there. Also, due to my ongoing, personal work in PTSD recovery, the relationship between the visual arts and emotional healing has emerged as a calling. I am currently working to develop and fund art outreach programs in my community for homeless youth, foster children, and women who have suffered sexual violence.
I am sharing here the full "corpus" of my work -- from my hesitant beginnings with ATCs, to my current expressionistic abstract works in pure collage. I feel as if I am constantly growing and expanding my horizons as an artist, and I look forward to sharing that journey with all of you.
Peace,
Laura
I am a 57 year-old self-taught artist, and began to develop my skills only a few years ago. It's actually a rather interesting story.
Until 2009, I thought that I didn't have a creative bone in my body, as they say. I had completely forgotten that, as a young person I had produced some very special art in elementary and junior high schools. I even won a school-wide art contest in 7th grade. However, I went to a specialized career high school (the High School for the Health Professions in Houston -- now DeBakey High School), and they didn't offer art as an elective. I entered the academic track and worried more about grades than the crayons and glue and yarn I had enjoyed just a few years earlier. As the years passed, I internalized the message that I wasn't gifted at all in the visual arts.
In 2007, I was blessed with a rich and fulfilling relationship with my first Spiritual Director. Madeleine was a gifted artist who happened to have late-stage ovarian cancer. Despite her knowledge that she only had a short time to live -- perhaps precisely because of this knowledge -- she took me under her wing in matters spiritual and artistic. I didn't realize at the time how closely related these two things are. She was my first mentor, and a gift beyond my limited imaginings.
Madeleine had been keeping a visual journal since her diagnosis, and convinced me that simple magazine collage would be good for my spiritual and psychological health. I began to fill pages with cut and carefully placed images interspersed with prose and poetic reflections. This practice was deeply satisfying, enriching, inspirational, healing, and exciting.
Madeleine died in 2008. We had only 6 months together, but her impact on my life will be, I know, lifelong and indelible.
It didn't seem so at first, though. I took a hiatus from all things artistic for almost 1 1/2 years, but in the summer of 2009, I stumbled across an Artist Trading Card (ATC) site online. These tiny, baseball card-sized works of art are created and traded by artists all over the world on sites like http://www.atcsforall.com/. I didn't know it then, but my life-changing artistic journey had begun in earnest.
I immersed myself in the challenges on these ATC sites for over a year, learning about different media (acrylics, watercolors, colored pencils, pastels, etc.) and different techniques. I was exposed to more art and artists than I could have found in years if I'd been studying independently, alone. It was an inspirational goldmine, and I recommend art cards to anyone who is just gaining their legs in visual creative expression.
I made my first larger piece with great fear and trembling during the summer of 2010, inspired by a trip to visit my daughter in Hawai'i. That was a scary step, but I never looked back.
Since 2010, I have created multiple assemblages, coordinated three profoundly satisfying cooperative large group art projects, discovered an affinity for art photography, and established my niche as an abstract collagist. My work is deeply rooted in the exploration of psychological, spiritual, and cultural concepts and relationships.
The collage techniques that I have developed over time are, I have come to realize, unique. Although many people associate collage with the manipulation of printed images (particularly from magazines), my work is different. I utilize "found" papers - vintage correspondence, maps, sheet music, and book pages, as well as ephemera such as train tickets, stamps, and even old prescriptions (!) - in concert with color from tissue papers and patterned napkins. I do not use scissors - everything is torn by hand - and multiple layers are vital to creating the textures and depth that are hallmarks of my work. These techniques result in expressionistic images which are not only pleasing (or challenging) to the eye but which also compel a visceral emotional response.
Over these past few years, I have been blessed by an artist residency at the Grunewald Guild in Leavenworth, Washington, by my affiliation with the JoMar Visions Art Gallery in Houston, and by my involvement in the Visual Arts Alliance, also here in Houston. In addition, a series of my therapy-related collages are being used by the staff of The New Orleans Institute for PTSD Recovery in their nationwide teaching seminars for trauma therapists.
My artistic passions have come to include much more than simply creating my own works, however. Due to my own long-held misunderstandings regarding the concept of creativity, it is terribly important to me that I encourage others to open their eyes to the creative potential of every single human being out there. Also, due to my ongoing, personal work in PTSD recovery, the relationship between the visual arts and emotional healing has emerged as a calling. I am currently working to develop and fund art outreach programs in my community for homeless youth, foster children, and women who have suffered sexual violence.
I am sharing here the full "corpus" of my work -- from my hesitant beginnings with ATCs, to my current expressionistic abstract works in pure collage. I feel as if I am constantly growing and expanding my horizons as an artist, and I look forward to sharing that journey with all of you.
Peace,
Laura