Philosophy:

Exploring how art can be all the elevating, transcending, culture-evolving things we want it to be, while also being inclusive, welcoming and participatory moves me as an artist.

I know too well that shrinking experience of feeling out of the loop - that fear of not understanding something that others around seem to. Therefore, I hope to make art - and share it in such a way - that is as open and friendly as possible.

On one hand, I do believe in such things as true art and good taste - I also believe in your heart, soul, and intelligence - that you know what touches you, what pleases your spirit. 

My work spans a range from fine art on canvas to children's illustration - but the goal is the same: to touch hearts and elevate spirits. Even when the work is dark sometimes it's about holding hands and moving through the darkness to reach the light together - cured of fear and more deeply connected.

I do my best to let the art guide me to what it wants to become - that way whatever message or feeling is delivered to a viewer is special and intended for them. The process of creating is my teacher.

Story:

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
T.S. Eliot

This quote has been my experience with art. Though I drew incessantly as a child (reams and reams of paper!) I actually resisted the idea of being an "artist" most of my life. Maybe it goes back to the idea of feeling out of the loop - that somehow I wasn't a "real" artist? Or perhaps it had to do with cultural stereotypes of artists necessarily being eccentric and anti-social? Regardless, returning to visual art has been a joyful homecoming.

I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas and spent ten precious years in Austin. I have also lived in New Orleans and Shreveport, LA, Asheville, NC, rural Florida and Tennessee, as well as Simi Valley, a suburb outside of Los Angeles, CA. From adolescents until quite recently acting was my primary creative focus. My family is very creative (our black sheep would be someone with a "normal" job!) My mom is a painter - my inspiration and mentor. I'm blessed to have grown up around her work! And to know first hand the challenges of art as a profession.

Influences

My mother, Sabrina Laumer is my strongest on-going influence, both in terms of my work and my approach to it. She's always taught me to let the process guide me. To accept "mistakes" as gifts, to surrender my expectations for a piece and let it teach me what it wants to be.

New Orleans was my home during a brief but intense period of my life (they've all been!) Every Wednesday the NOMA was free and I spent many soul-reviving hours absorbing the work of abstract expressionist Joan Mitchell, a collection of Patti Smith's Polaroids, and luminaries of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Surrealism.

I am equally - if not more influenced by spiritual practice and the process of personal growth. I am a member of the Baha'i Faith, which teaches the nobility of all humankind and that our purpose on this earth is to grow closer to our Creator through devotion and service. I regularly find inspiration in the works of Brene Brown, Marianne Williamson, Pema Chodron, Carolyn Myss and Clarissa Pinkolas Estes.

Lastly, I see in my work the influence of travel, the old Hollywood films I grew up on, my love of fashion history, folktale, archetypal and Jungian psychology.