We recently connected with Laura Colomb and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Laura thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Most of my creative projects have been impacted by the locations where I live, so when I first moved to Florida, I found myself needing to reinvent my practice. I came to Florida from upstate New York, where I grew up, and while I found the adjustment to this new place fun and hilarious in many ways, I did really struggle in other ways. While trying to figure out how I could fit in here, I took to the natural areas, hiking and swimming. It was through this process that I discovered the body of work I’ve been focusing on for the last six years, a body of work that I think is my strongest yet. If I hadn’t had the challenge of searching for a way to belong, I’m not sure I would have looked so intently at the environment here, and may not have found my current direction. So it’s meaningful in the sense that even while in dark places, there is always light too.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a painter working primarily in oil paint, watercolor and gouache. I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands and creating things. As someone who loves learning, I came to the decision to study art when I realized how it can be an inclusive and holistic way of talking about the human experience in the world. When researching a subject for an art project, I will often find myself reading philosophy, studying scientific research, thinking about politics and sociology, listening to music and considering lyrics, and really engaging in disparate fields in order to round out my ideas about something.
My current project involves painting from national parks and historic sites around Jacksonville, FL. I am always struck by the contradiction of these beautiful, awe-inspiring spaces adjoining historic sites where extremely violent events and massive crimes of injustice often took place. This dichotomy of how we preserve our violent history alongside our spaces of natural splendor fascinates me. I strive to explore this duality in my work by choosing these sites, to see if it is possible to show this tension through a direct painted landscape. The more I paint from these spaces, the more I wonder whether history can leave a trace on the land, if it mars it in some way, if the spirits of those lost can be felt and experienced in the light that filters through the trees and in the stillness of the unmoving air.
In 2021, I exhibited a body of work entitled The End of Eden, which explored these land preservation contradictions, while also connecting these coastal spaces to their impermanence, as locations at the edge of a rising sea. After two residencies in early 2022, I have been working on the series The Sentinels, where I paint the trees and shrubs as types of portraits, often echoing the centrality in light and placement, of a Christ figure in a crucifixion painting. I am trying to figure out how to paint a landscape that holds all of these complex histories, while also showing the energy of the life force that is still out there in this land now.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I always think the mark of a healthy society is how well it supports art and artists. We are the canary in the coal mine. It’s not hard to see that right now art is not a priority in any government body, nor the center of any political discussion. Creative work is a key to innovation, and I think that gets lost on leaders. Artists are also healers; in that they point out society’s contradictions and offer paths to inclusion and more justice. Our very purpose is to observe. Communities do well when they offer space to artists to make work, use community dollars to support public art projects, host pop ups and art walks. When institutions do outreach to families to encourage participation, it can create a sense of belonging and pride that has an outward ripple effect. And of course, don’t cut art and music programs from K-12 schools. Colleges and universities also have to stop supplanting their creative experts with part time faculty, who, despite their skills, cannot achieve what supported faculty can.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I first moved to Florida, I took a 9-5 office job. I soon discovered that the responsibilities associated with that decision made an artistic practice untenable, and so my creative work took a backseat. A couple of years in, I realized that I had completely disconnected from my purpose. It took four years of piecing together bits of time in the evenings to rebuild a worthwhile body of work. It all seemed to be coming together, with promising creative opportunities on the horizon that would allow me to quit my full-time job, when Covid hit, and like many other creatives, those opportunities dissolved overnight. I had to continue my job for another two years before I could walk away. Even though there were days when I questioned the validity of what I was doing, I stuck it out, and eventually the grants, residencies and exhibitions started to line up. It was very hard to pivot, but it was completely worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lauracolomb.com
- Instagram: @colombstudio