BIO
Lauris is a contemporary painter, born in La Jolla, California and educated in fine art at the University of California, Santa Cruz and at the University of Washington, Seattle. She lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In her art practice she uses sumi (Japanese ink) and naturally derived pigments. She makes her tools and paint from found materials. Her paper is of kozo and gampi fibers. Her work is research-based, in that she combines study of her subject with materials collected onsite, grounding her imagery in the natural world.
Since 2016, she has worked at the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern California where a threatened population of greater sandhill cranes nest. There she assists a banding program and does nest surveys. She photographs the cranes for painting imagery and collects materials, such as fur, reeds and clay, for construction of art tools. The resulting paintings have been exhibited at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon (2021, 2022, 2023) and in a solo exhibition at the Open Space Visitor Center Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico (2020). There, she also provided a class in painting cranes with sumi. In 2019, she was the featured artist at the Sandhill Crane Festival in Lodi, California, where she showed 24 sumi paintings and drawings and gave a lecture concerning the relationship of her work at the Modoc Refuge to her art practice.
Since arriving in New Mexico, she has taken her studio work in a minimalist direction. Her recent series are concerned with decay, weather and references to horizons. Painted with her handmade brushes, they combine sumi, indigo and watercolor ground from local clay, over drawings with beeswax from her hives. One of her Decay series was recently selected to participate in a group exhibition at Strata Gallery in Santa Fe.
Solo Exhibitions
2020 - OPEN SPACE VISITOR CENTER GALLERY, Crane Music - Albuquerque, NM
2019 - SANDHILL CRANE FESTIVAL, Featured Artist - Lodi, CA
2015 - BORREGO ART INSTITUTE, Desert Essence - Borrego Springs, CA
2015 - PIANTE GALLERY, Birds and Traces of Birds - Eureka, CA
2014 - JAPANESE FRIENDSHIP GARDEN , Moving Moment: Baja’s Wildlife in Sumi - San Diego, CA
2012 - PERSIMMONS GALLERY, Sumi Paintings from the Desert Coast of Baja - Redway, CA
2012 - MADRONE GALLERY, Inspired by Calligraphy - Garberville, CA
2012 - ART CENTER, Sumi Paintings from the Desert Coast of Baja - Eureka, CA
Group Exhibitions
2023 - HIGH DESERT MUSEUM, Art in the West - Bend, OR
2023 - STRATA GALLERY, Ephemerality - Santa Fe, NM
2022 - HIGH DESERT MUSEUM, Art in the West - Bend, OR
2021 - HIGH DESERT MUSEUM, Art in the West - Bend, OR
2019 - PIANTE GALLERY, Flowers - Eureka, CA
2019 - ARTS BENICIA, Enchanted Realm: Metaphors of Natural Design - Benicia, CA
2018 - MORRIS GRAVES MUSEUM OF ART, Members Show - Eureka, CA
2018 - SANDHILL CRANE FESTIVAL - Lodi, CA
2017 - SEBASTOPOL CENTER FOR THE ARTS, Blue - Sebastopol, CA
2016 - SANDHILL CRANE FESTIVAL - Lodi, CA
2009 - 2019 - SOUTHERN HUMBOLDT SUMMER ARTS FAIR: participant with Daishu-in West, Rinzai Zen Temple - Benbow, CA
2013 - ARCATA ARTS FAIR: participant with Daishu-in West, Rinzai Zen Temple - Arcata, CA
2012 - MATEEL COMMUNITY CENTER, Artists of the Emerald Coast - Redway, CA
Articles
2020 - Albuquerque Journal / December 27 / Taking Flight
2015 - Interview with Bob Doran / The Hum: available by request
Education
1980 - BA - University of California, Santa Cruz – studio art
1986/87 - University of Washington, Seattle – painting
1987 - Licensure in Massage Therapy, Seattle, WA
1987-2013 - Continued Education in and Practice of Massage Therapy
Residencies
2018 - PLAYA Summer Lake, Oregon
2015 - Anza Borrego State Park, CA