Sheila Laurienti, known by 'She' to her closest friends, shares her most recent work and where she found the inspiration. Born in the Pocono mountains, Sheila grew up loving art and nature. She attended The Art Institute of Philadelphia graduating with a degree in Visual Communications. After living all over the country, including Soho in Manhattan during its heyday, Sheila and her family settled in Highlands Ranch in 2003. Her love of the outdoors is well suited to Colorado living. She plays tennis, hikes, kayaks, loves dancing and meditates daily. Find her at SheilaLaurientiArt.com.
Is painting new for you?
I’m a self-taught painter. I’ve been painting for 30 years. When my kids were young, I was so busy with the stay-at-home mom thing. I was a working artist during that time but didn’t have much time to invest in my work. Once my kids were grown, I had more time, and things started opening up for me. I will often do multiple studies of a subject or series to decide which go onto the large canvas.
Meditation clears my head and gives me the visuals I need. Now, I am coming into my own. I’ve always been an artist, but now I have all this creativity coming out onto the canvas.
Faced with really difficult times, instead of writing in a journal, I started writing my troubling feelings on the canvas. I decided I didn’t want that sort of energy going into people’s home once they purchase my work, so I changed the messages on the canvas to positive words.Then I cover them with paint.
Your most recent series, Be the Light, is full of meaning. Tell us about that.
This work was all done during quarantine. I wrote positive words like “Be the Light”, bible verses, Buddha’s words, so on. In each of these paintings, there is always a bit of red, which is my heart, and burnt umber, which is my soul. So,I have put in the good words, the good vibes, and my heart and soul into each painting before it goes into someone’s home.
The series is inspired by whatever brings you your peace and light, whatever you believe in. God, Mother Nature, the universe, whatever, that is the light emanating through the trees. I used aspen trees with the root system, and the crowning of the branches and then they fill our life with oxygen. The paintings are mixed media, including spackle, and I love the depth it created. Most people see aspen trees with whites, greys and browns, which are beautiful, but I see all different colors.
This work was also inspired by a dear friend whose son passed by suicide. I was feeling him one day, so I started writing down some of the things he wrote in his journalonto the canvas. I asked him to be with me and that is whenthe light in the painting started coming through followed by brighter colors.
I wanted people to know that even though you have dark days, don’t succumb to the darkness. You are surrounded by love and light.
What fosters this awakening? Do you see your peers also experiencing this opening up?
I see a lot of my friends also coming into their own and discovering themselves. I belong to women’s groups and interact with these wonderful women who are so enlightened. It helps all of us spread out wings. We’ve found it is okay to be true to ourselves and have all these amazing feelings, growth and pain. It is wonderful to go through the experiences together; you don’t have to be alone.
Your work is rooted in the strength of women and the power of femininity.
As women, we wear so many hats, mother, wife, and more. Sometimes we lose who we are, define ourselves in those roles. I have so much respect for the amazing women of the previous generation, but we don’t have to do things exactly like they did. They did so much for women in their time, and now it's our time to do even more. I have a daughter and I want to show her she is so powerful.Women have so much to say, so much to share. Feminine qualities, like vulnerability, showing and experiencing emotions, we now view as strong, not weak. I love what is happening, and how women are evolving.