Visit Lauryn’s Studio

Q&A with Lauryn

1.  What is your chosen medium?

Painting

2. How did you start your career in art?

I was so close to going to college for engineering, but found that spending time in the studio came so much more easily than spending time with numbers. My family and I created an art happening room for my 18th birthday party, where fifty of my friends came in and we painted on the walls, ceiling, floor, and each other. That experience tipped the scales for me as an artist, and I never looked back.

3. What informs your art?

I study camouflage and patterning in nature, and am an avid birdwatcher. The history of French post-impressionist painting has also been influential for me, especially the paintings by Bonnard and Vuillard.

4. What jobs you have worked other than as a professional artist?

I have taught art camps at the Peterborough Art Academy, continuing education courses and undergraduate courses at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, pre-college at the Rhode Island School of Design, online tutorials and critiques with Art Prof, and portfolio building classes with ArtOne in Guangzhou, China. I was also the gallery manager at the Sharon Arts Gallery in Peterborough, NH until I left for grad school in 2019.

5. What questions do you ask yourself when starting to work?

How does this relate to other projects I am working on? Have I done enough planning so I don’t run into trouble later? Who or what am I referencing and why?

6. Do you have a quote that’s important to you displayed in your studio?  If so, what is it?  

“Chaos is a ladder.”- Littlefinger in Game of Thrones

7. Which artist (living or not) would you most like to invite for dinner? What would you serve?

My dear friend and artist mentor Gareth Jones bought me my first drink when I turned 21. It was a glass of red wine, and I said it was “tasty.” He, a wine connoisseur, has never let me live that comment down. I’ve only seen him once over the past eight years, and should like to sit down with him again and treat him to a bottle of cabernet sauvignon flavored with plums and cherries, notes of black pepper, and moderate on the tannins. 

8.  What has been your most unusual request for your art?

Someone once wanted to commission me to paint Jesus looking like Elvis holding a cheeseburger. I didn’t end up taking the commission on, but once you get that image in your head, you can’t shake it loose! 

9. What music are you listening to these days?

Grimes’ new album Miss Anthropocene, and her old album Art Angels.

10. What is on your nightstand?

Several stuffed animal puppets including a raccoon and a raven, a photo of my partner and me, a bowl of wooden acorns, and a mismatched collection of quarantine masks.