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Bio
Lauren Woods is an artist whose practice and creative research explores embodied expression, nature's consciousness, and the transformational properties of time. She examines concepts of mythic time through work that blends fabricated and observed reality with fluid narratives, similar to experiences in a dream state. Personal myth is developed visually across various mediums such as painting, video, and dance performances.
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren received her MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art after completing her BA in studio art at Spring Hill College. Currently, she works as a professor in the Department of Art & Art History at Auburn University, where she teaches figure drawing and painting.
Lauren has exhibited her work in galleries, museum spaces, and universities across the US. She is also a recipient of a 2024 Individual Visual Arts Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. In addition to painting, she has worked in partnership with Sheep Meadow Dance Theatre under the direction of Billy Blanken for the visual art direction of four live multimedia dance performances performed through Culture Lab LIC in Long Island City, NY. Their most recent collaboration, SMDT Season IV: An Evening of New Classics, was supported by a 2023 New Works Grant through the Queens Arts Fund.
Artist Statement:
In this work, I explore painting as a symbolic vessel for physical, emotional, and spiritual journeys. Drawing inspiration from stories of bodily transformation and allegorical depictions of feminine divinity in art and myth, these paintings become a means to channel, express, and transform personal experiences. The circle, a central motif in these works, symbolizes a poetic space transcending linear time. With no distinct beginning or end, the circle becomes a vessel encapsulating and defining the sacred, inviting viewers to traverse the realms of their inner world through contemplation of nature and the cosmos.
1. What are 1-3 books that have influenced your life?
The Sybil by Par Lagerkvist: I came across this by chance in high school and it haunted me for years with its simple yet sublime mode of storytelling. I have always desired to achieve the same poetic and powerful effect through my artwork.
The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain: although pop-anthropology, with some outdated neuroscience, I came across this book at the right time for my growth during grad school. After reading it I started thinking about concepts of time and visual culture differently, and it began my exploration of the feminine divine in mythology and iconography.
Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland: a classic that my undergraduate art professor had us read that still resonates with practical guidance for navigating a career as an artist/academic.
2. What are you currently working on?
For this show at James May Gallery, I began a new body of work that has been in the planning/ideation stages since last summer. These tondo paintings feature a combination of naturalistic floral wreath motifs and ethereal backdrops of cosmological imagery, representing the vastness of outer space (symbolizing consciousness) contrasting with foreground material elements. I am thinking of these as exercises in traversing the vastness of one’s inner world through looking at nature and space. I will continue working on more of these during this fall semester because I was awarded a semester-leave from teaching by Auburn University after achieving tenure and promotion last spring.
3. How has failure set you up for later success? What was your favorite failure?
Failure to go to American Ballet Theatre Summer Dance intensive in NYC the summer I turned 17. I wouldn’t say it was a favorite because it was devastating to me at the time, but I feel it changed the trajectory of my life. Despite being accepted, a mail delay with my tuition payment cost me a spot. Instead, I ended up at the Joffrey Ballet School with a scholarship, with a less intensive class schedule that allowed me time to explore the city. Even though attending the ABT program was not any sort of guarantee of a professional dance career, this change of plans opened my eyes to how much I enjoyed experiencing art, life, and culture outside of the dance studio. I eventually made it my goal to return to NYC once I began studying visual art in undergrad and was able to do so when I attended the New York Academy of Art MFA program.
An audition photo from back then
4. What is your most unusual habit?
Not really that unusual, but I use whatever I can get my hands on for palettes that doesn’t absorb paint. I like to move around when I work, so I need something light that I can hold in my hand. I ask my colleagues to keep any foam or plastic trays they get with their groceries so I can use them as palettes.
5. If you could have any painter, living or dead paint your portrait who would it be and why?
Botticelli because I had a transcendent experience viewing his work in person when it traveled to Boston. The way he paints subtle movement through something like wind-blown hair was so magical.
6. What is the most indispensable item in your studio/workspace/office? What is your studio like? Could you share an image?
Wall space and large buckets to prop paintings. My studio is a small room in my house that has a nice bay window for storage of supplies and good light. I tend to keep my space organized because I can’t concentrate with chaotic space. In summers, I often paint in the studio classrooms on campus at Auburn so I can have a larger space to work. One day I would like to have a studio with higher ceilings so I can expand my work more vertically. One of the hardest parts of my small workspace and large paintings is getting good photographs and packing my work for exhibitions.
Home studio
Painting classroom at Auburn University
7. When you feel overwhelmed or uninspired what do you do? What do you do to get out of a funk? What questions do you ask yourself?
Take nature walks and let my brain go where it wants. I usually have my best ideas come in the middle of the noise when I am not trying to think of anything in particular. I also still like to take ballet class when I am able because getting connected to the physicality of my body helps me to get out of a funk.
8. Who/What influences your work?
Time and place - the landscape around me and my past experiences growing up in the semi-rural Gulf Coast in south Mobile County, Alabama. Also, Catholic artwork and iconography that considers the paradox of the divine/corporeal nature of the body, and memories from performing in the theater from an early age.
9. Do you collect anything?
Rocks from nature walks. I also get excited if I find luna moth wings or interesting sticks.
10. What words of advice would you give to your younger self?
Try to enjoy yourself more and not worry about being perfect since it is not achievable. Your life will not go according to your intended plans or timeline, but you will have some adventures and transformative experiences along the way. You will attempt many things without a guide map tending toward a roundabout, mistake-prone, backward way but it will eventually help you to guide others. Oh, and you will find a way to continue making art and keeping it at the center of your life even though it is not always easy to manage.
11. In the last five years what new belief, or habit has most improved your life or studio practice?
During periods where I don’t have as much time to paint while teaching full-time during the academic year, I try to be kind to myself and make a goal of working on something slowly over the semester. If I can just make it look different each session I am making progress. I have also tried to limit how much art-related social media I take in, because it is difficult not to compare yourself to what you see on there and feel behind in terms of productivity and career achievements. One of my good friends and artist Erin Cross has a mantra “slow and steady wins the race,” in her practice and I take comfort now in growing at my own pace.
12. Share an inspiring image.
I have a few:
This summer I was able to work in the studios at my alma mater Spring Hill College while visiting family. This is my youngest niece in deep concentration working alongside me during this time.
Besides facilitating my art practice, teaching inspires me because you can light the spark in others to discover themselves through art. This is my former student and emerging artist Mrinal Joshi at his solo exhibition at Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC. Since he has graduated from Spring Hill College, he has gone on to residencies and exhibitions at the Torpedo Factory in Virginia, Phoenix Athens Gallery in Athens, Greece, and the New York Academy of Art.
Art students in my figure drawing class at Auburn University working on various techniques with gesture drawing.
Please explore How to Traverse a Vessel online through Artsy or at the gallery!
James May Gallery | 2201 N Farwell, Milwaukee, WI | 262-753-3130
HOW TO TRAVERSE A VESSEL featuring Lauren Woods & Nikita Vishnevskiy runs until Oct 26.
See more of Lauren's work and follow her here: ARTSY
See what is happening at the gallery:
Please continue to support us by visiting us in person at our new location: 2201 N Farwell Ave, Milwaukee or check out our Artsy page.
Feel free to contact us:
mail@jamesmaygallery.com 262-753-3130
HOURS: Thur 10:30-5:30 Fri 11- 5:30 Sat 10:30-5:30
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