Laurie Maves
Laurie Maves Lakewood, Colorado - United States _____________________________ WEBSITE: | ARTIST STATEMENT For over a decade now I have been painting women: women who smile, women who frown, women who pout, women who ponder. I was often influenced by such masters as Botticelli, Modigliani, Gauguin and Picasso. In the beginning of 2006 my work began to change and evolve. I used more materials, started topour paint, added assemblage, and increasing amounts of text, written or collaged onto my canvases. With the text, it seemed as if these women were beginning to tell their stories instead of plain existing. After viewing the diary of Frida Kahlo, followed by my introduction to the raw and biting work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, I found a stronger calling to look further into what these feminine figures were all about. Botticelli’s Venus imagery as well as likenesses of Frida began to surface in my paintings along with red faces, big orb-like eyes, swirling trees and layers upon layers of color. I gradually came to the realization that all these feminine figures I was painting for the last decade were all aspects of me, compositions of Laurie, and what goes on in her trippy little mind. I often lack words to describe what I’m feeling or experiencing on any given Sunday, therefore, my painting becomes my way of communicating with the world – a way for me to compose the diary of my life, a way to tell my own story through my imagery. In 2007, I began to spend a greater deal of my time painting and needed more surfaces to work on. I had the notion of reworking some older pieces and eventually repainted some paintings that no longer served me. I then began to focus on the recycling of “canvases,” be they old canvases of mine or someone else’s, wood panels, and even old siding that was found along the highway. In early 2008, at the suggestion of a friend, I added leather handbags that I gathered up from thrift stores to my list of interesting vistas for art. All these things that other people no longer needed or wanted, I looked at them in a new and different way – always trying to find the potential beauty in what others have let go. Sculptor Aaron Kramer’s statement, “Trash is the failure of imagination,”rings so true in my soul. I believe artists have a special responsibility in creating art to be as green as they possibly can, and use their own creativity to explore new ways of presenting the mundane and ordinary to the world in new and challenging ways. Why buy new canvases, when there is a load of stuff out there to work on that others would rather throw away? Someone else’s trash has slowly but surely become my land of treasure. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2008 855 ARTIST STUDIOS, Denver, CO Ditto Gallery, Denver, CO, group show Bad Girls Bad Art Show, Denver, CO, group show Tastes Uptown, Denver, CO, 2 person show 2007 Gallery Gustave @ Tastes, Denver, CO, solo show Kazzaz Art Corporation, Denver, CO, group show CORE New Art Space, Denver, CO juried group show Dynamis ART, Sante Fe, NM, group exhibition CAPSULEEventsCenter, Art-O-Mart, group show Art Students League of Denver Summer Art Market Soulrise Gallery, Denver, CO Lakewood Cultural Center, City Limits, Lakewood, CO, juried group ARTFARM, Denver Urban Gardens, Denver, CO, juried group Bath House Cultural Center, Dia de los Muertos Show, Dallas, TX, juried group LakewoodCulturalCenter, Houses of the Dead, Lakewood, CO, juried group ZOMBIE show, Bad Art for Bad People, Denver, CO, juried group DenverCenter for Performing Arts (DCPA), Denver, CO, juried group The Other Side Arts (TOSA), Denver, CO, group show with Laura Kazzaz 2006 4th Dimension Gallery Contours, Denver, CO, 2-person show The Other Side Arts Gallery, 5th Annual Women’s Show Denver, CO group show Red Rocks Country Club Art Walk, Morrison, CO, juried group show Lakewood Cultural Center, Crossings, Lakewood, CO, juried group show Square101 Gallery, Denver, CO, solo show Square101 Gallery, Denver, CO group show Lakewood Cultural Center, Holiday Artisans Show, Lakewood, CO, juried group 2004 Kamlet & Shepperd, The Diva Show, Denver, CO, juried group show 2003 The Gathering Place, Chicago, IL, group show ArtZ Gallery in Cherry Creek, Denver, CO 2002 Flux Gallery, Denver, CO, 2-person show 2001 Flux Gallery, Denver, CO, group show 1997 SAIC’s Gallery 57, The Graduate Exhibition, Chicago, IL, group show 1995 Bering Sea Art Exchange International, Petropvavlovsk, Russia, group show Woman Made Gallery, Life Cycles of Women, Chicago, IL, juried group show 1994 FreeportArt Museum, Regional Young Artists, Freeport, IL, group show
LIVE PAINTINGS BY INVITATION 2008 Denver Art Museum for Culture Haus, Denver, CO the Jet Hotel , for the Mask Project, Denver, CO Hodi’s Halfnote, Zebra Junction CD release party, Ft. Collins, CO the Falcon, Zebra Junction CD release party, Denver, CO the Fox Theater, Zebra Junction CD release party, Boulder, CO Dazzle Jazz Club, Live painting for Heather Larrabee, Denver, CO the Soiled Dove Underground, painting for Rob Drabkin, Denver, CO the Oriental Theater, painting for the Bluebird Equation, Denver, CO Dazzle Jazz Club, live painting for UNICEF fundraiser La Piazza dell Arte, Denver, CO 2007 Red Rocks Amphitheater, Live Painting with Zebra Junction,Comedian Josh Blue The Gothic Theater - Live Painting with Zebra Junction Dazzle Jazz Club, Denver, CO - Live Painting with the Ralph Sharon Trio the Mask Project Kick-off Party, Denver, CO La Piazza dell Arte, Denver, CO BareWalls, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 2006 ARTOPIA, Denver, CO La Piazza dell Arte, Denver, CO 2005 BareWalls, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL La Piazza dell Arte, Denver, CO ARTOPIA, Denver, CO 2004 La Piazza dell Arte, Denver, CO ARTOPIA, Denver, CO 2003 La Piazza dell Arte, Denver, CO ARTOPIA, Denver, CO SELECTED COLLECTIONS David Cole and Associates, Denver, CO works on loan 2007 Yanari, Watson and McGaughey, LLC, Greenwood Village, CO Ralph Sharon Brandi Carlile Nina Storey EDUCATION 1997 MA in Art Therapy, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) 1993 BS in Studio Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS 2000-2002 Flux Gallery, cooperative space, Denver, CO 2004-2006 Heritage, Culture and Arts Commission, Lakewood, CO 2006 The LAB of Art and Ideas, Lakewood |