Origin of the Madness
In a small house in Pennsylvania, the sun has barely risen, but there sits a four-year-old girl happily playing with some colored blocks of varying sizes. Awake long before her family she sets about to make her peacock. When her family finally wakes and joins her, they all ask who helped her in making it not believe her when she says “I did it. No one helped me.” After an hour of asking each other who helped her, they realized she was telling the truth.
Lauren’s life began, being born into a loving but strict family as the oldest of four children in Florida. Her parents’ drive for their children to succeed created a need to be prefect in Lauren as the oldest that is still ingrained in her to this day.
While this drove Lauren to excel in her academics and search for more challenges in her education, nothing quite had her attention like art. It was something she couldn’t escape, even while paying attention to her lessons in the margins of her notes there would be little doodles. So much so her teachers tried to stop it. Going as far to contact her parents saying she needed to stop. “How are her grades?” Her parents asked. “Great, she is one of the best students.” Her teacher responded. “If her grades are good then let her doodle. It seems to help her.”
From that moment there was no stopping Lauren as she continued to push herself and her creativity. Joining the academic ranks at Salem Academy in North Carolina in 2010 as a freshman. In her pursue of challenging herself she eventually causing a mental breakdown from which she would leave Salem Academy and graduate from West Orange High in 2014. With high school behind her and her parents’ support she attended the University of West Florida for her Bachelor of the Arts and completing their BFA program graduating in 2018.
In late 2019 she moved in with her then boyfriend in Rochester, New York, who she then married in 2022 on their 5th anniversary. She now works from home as a full time artist with her two feathered assistants Casper and Sunshine.
About Lauren
For as long as I have taken breathe art has been the one thing I feel one with. I spent most of my time wandering the vast space of my mind. Having suffered from mental illness and a lot of loss in my life from a young age art has been what has held me together.
Art has been my tool to understanding and identifying what I am feeling. It makes me feel safe and comfortable with my uncomfortable feelings. It has been the words to describe to others how I feel when I can’t articulate what it is I am feeling.
Shows I have participated in
Grants/Awards
2011 Art Purchase Award, Salem Academy, Winston-Salem, NC Group Exhibitions
2015 Semi-Annual POP-UP Exhibition (Fall), Center for Fine and Performing Arts, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL (Invitational)
2017 Nasty Women Exhibition, Chizuko, Pensacola, FL
2017 TAGGED Student Art and Design Exhibition, The Art Gallery, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL
2017 Collective Visions .01: A Gallery Night BFA Art Exhibition, Breathe Studio, Pensacola, FL (Invitational)
2017 Semi-Annual POP-UP Exhibition (Fall), Center for Fine and Performing Arts, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL (Invitational)
2018 Members of Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola Museum of Art, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL (Invitational)
2018 Synthesis, The Art Gallery, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL
2019 All Painting, Contemporary Art Gallery Online, New York, Ny and San Francisco, Ca
2025 Blossoms 2025 Countywide Art Show, Blossoms of Hope, 6021 University Blvd, Suite 140, Ellicott City, MD 21043