The Art of Lauren Quist

 Ever since I could pick up a crayon, I’ve been creating art whether it be for school or to design characters and objects for the stories I created using my imagination. As I got older, my imagination grew with me as well as the collection of images I gathered from different experiences while traveling abroad and everyday life. Throughout my travels, which countries include Romania, France, and Iceland, I’ve been able to incorporate ideas from their cultures and my surroundings into my art and design.  Although I studied art for my bachelor’s degree, I taught myself how to paint and embroider for my final art class and showed that painting in my senior exhibition.  Later in 2013, I participated in my first professional art show, "Around the Square", and won the Popular Vote Award.  Since then, I've participated in several art shows and continue to be inspired to create contemporary mixed media art by the world around us.  

 The process of each piece starts with a photograph that I have taken of a place I've been or of a beautiful part of nature. From that photo, I draw it onto a canvas and paint it with acrylics.   Then I hand-embroider bits and pieces that I want to highlight for the amount of contrast I desire.  Through the use of different textures of paint and embroidery, I am able to manipulate how light interacts with my art and how mixing the contrasting hard and soft textures create harmony in my art.