We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laura Berendsen Hughes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laura Berendsen below.

Alright, Laura Berendsen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I don’t think I realized that I was taking risks when I would choose artistic pursuits. I think with 4 children to raise my parents just didn’t have the ability to completely focus on any one child long enough to enforce any particular path upon them. So when I went to college my father had given up trying to direct my particular career path and instead just encouraged me to go to the best school I could get into. That is how I ended up majoring in art at UNC-Chapel Hill which only had a handful of Fine Art majors the year I graduated. So I did not have the benefit of a competitive program but I did have the freedom of a well funded, underutilized facility. I had lovely professors, a lovely facility, and not much pressure. Really it was a bit of heaven. The rest of my adult career proceeded in a similar fashion. Gradual fitting in to the world. I eventually learned graphic design skills and have worked as a Graphic Designer for small and large companies as well as for myself as a Sole Proprietor of Laura Hughes Design.

Graphic design has been a wonderful way to use my creativity in the work place. I don’t regret spending so much of my life working as a designer as it had been an excellent way to hone many artistic skills that are fundamental to any visual project. Composition and communication are fundamentals and I think when I decided to paint it was not as if I had wasted all that time as a designer. Also, the ability to work with people, to get things done, to market, to respond to clients, those things are part of a fine arts career as well.

So what I think is a more subtle but interesting way for me to discuss risk would be to place it in the context of making beauty. Beauty is perhaps the thing I’m interested in with my fine artwork. It sounds commonplace, but making something beautiful in a fine art context is not the same as making something pretty, or useful and while a painting may have a function such as decorating a wall, what differs it from craft is its singularity. It is unique, one of a kind, not repeatable, and because of this speaks to the human condition. We are all of these things as well. Each painting takes that kind of risk, it must stand on its own and it must satisfy the viewer in some way. Pretty is too complete, too finished, too predictable, “Beauty” is what makes it more intense, more like life itself, not perfect, perhaps a bit “off.”

So as an artist you have to find that level of risk in each painting. Even if you’re working on a series that has similarities, each piece must push back and have something about it that echos the human condition with our struggles and unpredictabilities.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I am an acrylic painter and graphic designer working in Durham, North Carolina, USA. I received a BFA in Fine Art with a concentration in sculpture from UNC – Chapel Hill. I’ve worked as a designer for over 30 years and recently returned to creating fine art. Sculpture is a bit harder to do in one’s home so I’ve been focusing on painting. I mainly paint abstract and abstract inspired equine work reflective of a love for horses that I’ve had since childhood. I think the horses also enable me to think sculpturally as I imagine their form and presence when I paint them. I enjoy the drama of scale, contrast and texture in my work.

When I paint I’m attempting to use my accumulative artistic experience and skill to make something Beautiful. I use a capital “B” for Beauty to imply more than a culturally accepted standard of physical attractiveness. I am not attempting to create something pretty, I’m attempting to transcend the accepted and find the universal and transcendent. Although prettiness does requires skill, for me Beauty is deeper and more all encompassing. Beauty embodies the whole of human
experience and must also contain chaos, decay and imperfection.

My work seeks to capture a complexity that satisfies at a deep level. I want to make something that has history and depth, that is archetypical and opposite from things sterile and minimalistic. I’m looking to capture a collective experience that feels timeless but that still references contemporary culture. I find inspiration in graffiti, street art, tattooing, aboriginal and outsider art as well as modern design. The work is not an attempt to capture emotion but more of a psychological exploration of potency.

What looks intuitive and spontaneous in my work actually starts with a fairly tight plan. I’m an unapologetic copyist and I sample brush stokes, colors, shapes and designs from contemporary working artist and I use these references in a digitally created sketch, but I’m not just executing that guide, at every step of the process I’m open to what the paint wants to do and letting it have a say in what finally shows up. I am trying to find the Beauty in the material of paint and the visual rules or breaking of the rules of good design. I paint multiple layers until there is a sense of final maturity. I refine the seemingly spontaneous and varied initial marks until they become more rich and satisfying. I often take large risks at the end with the introduction of negative spaces that break up the composition and repositions the parts into a new composition. These risks seek to breathe soul into what otherwise might be only skillful. I’m attempting to embody the rich fabric of human experience including stages of innocence, growth, and decay.

I title my works after the ecstatic love poems of the poet and Sufi mystic Rumi who described the spiritual nature of physical reality and the ultimate truth that all things are united and divine.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I cannot say enough about the book that started me back on a path to fine art. Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” is a 12 week workbook that I journeyed though with the leadership of an artist friend and 3 other participants. We met once a week for 12 weeks and used the exercises and format of the book to structure our time together. I’ve met many other artists who also found this book to be very inspirational. It is a book on creativity not necessarily fine art, one could be a musician, a cook, or any profession really. It is about finding that universal creative soul that we all have. We are all seeking meaning, trying to find happiness and trying to avoid suffering. The book is spiritual, psychological and works on personal development.

I also highly recommend Nicholas Wilton’s Creative Visionary Program which was another 12 week format but this one is more particularly aimed at painters. I had signed up to take this workshop right when Covid hit so it was particularly timely that I had 12 weeks of lectures, online content and exercises to fill those early days of the Pandemic. It was actually in this course that the term “Risk” was introduced to me as an artistic component.

I have also greatly enjoyed Audrey Phillips’ workshops both in Florida and in New Mexico. I was looking for someone to help me with my abstract work. She is a lovely teacher who also weave in a thread of spirituality particularly through spontaneity.

Both Nicholas and Audrey offered me combinations or design fundamentals as well more subjective aspects that nurtured authenticity.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I often wonder if people realize the amount of work that goes into the creative process. I’ve had people say things to me like “I bet you have so much fun!” which is true in one sense but honestly I sometimes have to take a break from painting because it is so demanding. Doing a graphic design project where the goals are more simple and straight forward is often a welcome change from the constant pushing to make something original. It’s not that I don’t find painting rewarding but it is intense. It requires a lot of personal energy and vulnerability.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.laurahughespaintings.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraberendsenpaintings/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraBerendsenPaintings