Laura Gajewski

Portland MI

210 E Grand River
Painting
Bio
ì . . . place applies to our own personal memory, known or unknown histories, marks made in the land that provoke and evoke. Place is latitudinal and longitudinal within the map of a personís life. It is temporal and spatial, personal and political. A layered location replete with human histories and memories, place has width as well as depth. It is about connections, what surrounds it, what formed it, what happened there, what will happen there.î Lucy R. Lippard I hope to provoke thoughts of abandoned houses as witnesses to life, surviving as empty shells wrapped around the passage of time. These pieces reflect and support the idea of discovering beauty in decay, of looking past the discarded and rejected to see the energy and life that once existed within. Process is a crucial, and highly evident, element of this work. The surface of the original drawing is intended to parallel the weathered surface of the house itself, while alluding to the countless layers of time and events that made it that way. The original surface of this drawing was sanded, ripped, layered, peeled, stripped, erased, and reworked with various media (charcoal, graphite, spray enamel, tar, gesso, chalk pastel, oil paint, ink, acrylic, collage, and transfer).
Artist Statement
I hope to provoke thoughts of abandoned houses as witnesses to life, surviving as empty shells wrapped around the passage of time. These pieces reflect and support the idea of discovering beauty in decay, of looking past the discarded and rejected to see the energy and life that once existed within.