(b. 1984)
Laura Garwood was born In Texas and spent her childhood in Houston, where she now currently resides. Laura recalls an early fascination with not only artwork itself, but also the lives of the artists that shaped their work, depicted in the Mike Venezia's picture books. In conjunction with enrolling in the Religious Studies and Literature Program at Princeton University, Laura took several Studio art classes, notably influenced and encouraged by Artist/Professor, Eve Aschhiem. Post College, Laura moved to New York City to resume studio art courses at Hunter College, completing a BA in studio arts, studying under Laura Sue King, Constance de Jong, and Drew Beattie. The vibrancy and energy of New York City's art life had a lasting impact on Laura's understanding of contemporary Art. Shortly thereafter, Laura moved back to Houston and began working from her studio at home; experimenting with strips of canvas and attaching these pieces repeatedly across a traditional stretched canvas; and later ripping them away to reveal the original canvas in a process of creative destruction through the repetition of adding and removal practice. Art can be an obsessive playing around with materials and improving one's mastery over these personally chosen materials. In process art, Laura sees qualities of the sublime, a kind of beauty that juxtaposes rough edges, scrapes and/or paint marks along with the artist's intention to harmonize a work of Art through color or texture. The art process can be an escape and healing from the chatter of the mind, the universal desire for meaning and beauty.
Statement
My paintings are fueled by desire or eros, expressed through texture, color, process of construction and deconstruction on the canvas. While desire is a driving force in the artistic process, it's goal does not seek to ravage, but rather work through it to reach an image of contentment.
Desire and eros are fueled by survival, reproduction, and pleasure. Freud contrasted eros to thantos, life instinct verse death instinct. I find the tension between decay and desire to be a poignant expression of humanity, particularly in Art. As stated above, desire is expressed through texture, color, documentation of time through deconstruction and reconstruction of strips and canvas. I look for the spaces between the ugly and the beautiful, bringing the two together in any way I can so long as there is harmony and contentment in the finished product. Each of the paintings have been barred and stretched by the artist; similar to sculpture, the building of the canvas becomes a fundamental part of the process and finished product. Some of the paintings cannot be framed due to a purposeful tilt or a skewed slant of the canvas shape.
Looking at art can be meditative, you are meditating on an abstract or expressive image, representing the sublime. My hope is that my work, with its indicators of process and human touch reflect the effort to continually re-define and evolve what is beautiful. I often try to name or dedicate the paintings after people, songs, books, objects, and animals honoring the physical world and the shared human experience that has fueled a desire to create, again and again.
Powered by Artwork Archive