Laura[hidden]

Laura hails from sunny Florida and has been creating art since before she can remember. Her parents discovered her skills when they left a pencil and paper out for her to mess around with and what she produced blew them away.

Speaking of her connection to art, Laura tells us: “I was always really in tune with art and have really vivid memories of creating art as a child. It’s my first language. And I find it amazing that we can create anything we want and there’s no limit.”

Laura studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Pensacola, where she dived into her experimentation with various artistic mediums, including painting, animation, and sculpture. This led to a commission by the President and the President’s Cabinet of the University to build a public sculpture designed and built by her and two of peers. Laura went on to hold a solo show at the Pensacola Museum of Art. Hot Mess drew inspiration from life, memories and the culture she grew up in.

Speaking of the artists that inspire her, Laura tells us: “Ai Weiwei is a role model to me because of the impact of his artwork. I find art to be extremely powerful and he’s an artist who uses it to fight for our right to create. I also love Tracey Emin, like Weiwei, she unapologetically creates. She can be going through the roughest shit in her life and she puts it on display.”

If you could go back in time and hang out with artists from any artistic movement, who would you choose and why?

“I’d love to hang out with Yayoi Kusama back in the day when she was doing the live paintings putting dots on everybody. I’d love to be her friend and follow her around during the time when she moved to New York and was first getting her art into galleries. Back then, it was just men being recognised, so she really had to fight to be known. She had so many people under her thumb, telling them that they needed her and that she was the next big thing. I admire her determination to share her vision with the proper respect it deserved. I’d love to watch and learn from the best.”

What would you steal in a high stakes art heist?

“The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin, because why not? It’s epic!”

If you could emulate the style of one artist, who would it be?

“I love Philip Guston. His style is so intuitive and raw. He expressed his feelings and observations of the world around him through his larger-than-life paintings. He had a clear voice that personified feelings and circumstances in life that are indescribable.”

Why do you think art is important?

“Art inspires everything and is an expression of who we are as people. Where words can often fail us, images don’t. Before language, we created art to communicate with each other, so it has always been there, and has always been important.”

Who is an artist that you think is one to watch?

“Hannah Shillito is so much fun. Her work always has a message of empowerment behind it, which I love and can’t wait for more people to discover. She brings so much energy to everything she does, and I love her most recent collaboration, Hannah Shillito x Yan Skates Collection, which was originally created for our 2022 London Pop-Up. In the series she includes words like ‘Balls’ and ‘Cock’ overlaid on floral bouquets. To people that don’t speak the language, these words have no meaning at all so it’s just a beautiful word on a beautiful image. It plays with the conditioning that we go through and the associations that we make and that’s just brilliant.”