Lauren is a self-taught artist out of Dallas, Texas with over a decade of experience in painting, graphics, scenic art, and murals. “A large part of my work and process is to sort of “go with the flow” and make decisions in the moment... to not be too rigid. I feel most like myself when creating my work because I’m following my lead and intuition. A lot of the themes in my artwork are rather personal and internal. I would say my work is psychological and self-reflective. A long journey of personal growth.”
Behind the mural
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A large part of my work and process is to sort of "go with the flow" and make decisions in the moment... to not be too rigid. A huge part of my artwork and why I feel more myself when I'm creating my work is that it's one of the only things I do where I feel completely myself and I'm following my own lead and intuition. A lot of the themes in my artwork are rather personal and internal to myself. I would say my work is psychological and self-reflective. A long journey of personal growth.
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Public art is a great way for people to experience artwork for free. It's more inclusive and accessible. I love the public art scene in DFW. We have so many amazing local artists here and we have lots of artists from around the country and the world who have painted murals here! You can see and experience so much in our community. I want people to feel alive and encouraged and like great things are possible when they look at my work. I want people to feel more connected and appreciative of nature.
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For this particular mural, I was heavily inspired by the work I'm currently in the middle of painting in my studio. Lots of rich colors and layering of shapes and patterns. My overall process was pretty much what I always do... I tend to start off without a plan and for this particular mural, the first few days were completely improvised. After a few days I started taking photos of my progress at the end of the day, and I would sketch out ideas. Some of those Ideas I would follow but overall, I would still improvise through the whole process. The end result is often a surprise even to me.
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I often use both acrylic paint and spray paint for my murals which is what I used for this one. I start off with one or a few colors that I roll on first and kind of end up with a random patchy background. I paint details in spray paint and I also paint details with rollers and brushes. There weren't any particular challenges for this mural. I would say thanks to my previous experience with mural painting and learning along the way in the past five years or so ended up making this project go pretty smoothly!
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I see these little worlds and ecosystems I create as never-ending. They are always moving and growing. I want people to feel like there is always room for growth and self-reflection. That we ourselves are an ongoing process and that we should stay true to ourselves even though it can be difficult since we are all surrounded by so much noise. I want my work to feel like a refuge or sanctuary.
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Le Groupe Obscur “Piȼedelula”
I chose this song because I love that it's in an invented language and I love how folky and enchanting it sounds. This song randomly showed up in my Spotify last year and very quickly became one of my most played songs last year. I feel like it fits the mystical and magical theme of Art Docks!