The garage door was open onto the tree lined street in a quiet neighborhood on a beautiful late fall day . Inside, a small art studio.
The walls are full. The pandemic has slowed down shows and sales but Laura Weston continues to create. Is driven to create even more in these uncertain times. For her, art should keep pleasant and consoling things in view, fortifying us against down times.
Who can argue with the thought that it is soothing and healthy and good for you to surround yourself with a mountainscape that reminds you of that fourteener you hiked, the whiteout you skied through, or a bowl of flowers that looks exactly like the flowers you grew in your garden this year.
Painting with paper is how Laura describes what she does. Seen from the door, the works look like paintings but are all torn papers, no paint, and as you get a little bit closer you see that. It is technically collage... an art form that means to stick together, sticking materials on a backing.
After a lifetime of artistic involvement, studying and practicing in a variety of disciplines, one summer day Laura was doing an art project with her granddaughter and chose something she had somehow never tried so they would both be starting from zero....and viola! Time stood still! So fun, so freeing, oh my gosh! Laura Weston had found her thing! Her granddaughter, not so much ): All of that is apparent when you see her work. The images are beautiful, colorful, primarily mountain landscapes or flowers. Created wtih happiness.
The work is driven by a love of color and pattern. Paper from everywhere, from art supply stores to magazines. There are stacks and baskets full in the studio. The patterns and colors mix and mingle. Each image is one of kind original. Laura says it would be impossible to duplicate any piece because you would never find or choose the exact same color or paper or tear it in the same way. Each image flows from the artist’s creative process as it changes and evolves during creation. The piece creates itself.
The work is unusual, original, pleasing to the eye, art to live with. And maybe make you feel better. A little therapy. And it is local.
Artist's Website - laurastornpaper.com
