The Landscape, Abstracted : Artist & Educator Laurén Brady

“Floodplain,” oil, flash, and pastel on panel

Laurén Brady’s abstract landscapes explore her interactions with the environment and the memories that linger from these experiences. With each painting she reconstructs a personal moment in a particular place, often drawing upon the feelings and emotions attached to that recollection. In this interview, Laurén shares her creative journey and what led her to explore themes of landscape and memory in her work.

Hi Laurén! Tell me about your background and where your creative journey began.

I have always been interested in the arts whether it was music, writing, or the visual arts. At a young age I took piano and cello lessons, where I learned what it means to hear tonal differences, rhythm and pacing, and to think about connotations and associations with sounds and feelings. In high school, I took my first drawing class and fell in love with charcoal and chalk pastels—drawn to the variety of mark-making possible with the medium. I attended Indiana Wesleyan University in 2009 where I studied Studio Art with an emphasis in Painting and a minor in Writing. I initially considered writing and painting as separate creative processes, parallel tracks that didn’t intersect. But with time, I discovered similarities between the subject matter of my fiction writing with my painting practice, how the use of metaphor and reduced language was present in both. Painting and writing have been interwoven in my process ever since. I was fortunate to be awarded a Graduate Assistantship at Michigan State University in 2016 which allowed me to unpack, deepen, and grow my creative practice for three years in the Masters of Fine Art Program. Currently a year out of grad school, I’m balancing my studio practice with my part-time job at a non-profit art center and occasional teaching appointments at Michigan State University and Kellogg Community College.

Your paintings reference memory and experience while acknowledging and observing the present moment. Can you tell me a bit more about the themes you explore in your work?

My current body of work explores landscape and memory by looking at the emotional and psychological attachments placed on daily events. Themes of wandering through various environments, loneliness, solitude, and transience surface within the drips and thick swaths of paint to create and obfuscate. Expressive mark-making from charcoal and pastel carved into the painted surface echo the landscapes I’m immersed in.

Anonymity is a through-line in my work. I reduce and abstract the images as much as possible while still leaving enough detail to convey a feeling and atmosphere. Figures, when present, are obscured, often appearing as drips and a single brushstroke—their surrounding environments more vibrant.

Solitude and solace are recurring themes as well. I grapple with the necessary solitude needed to make my work and with the solitude felt from the transience of moving regularly for most of my life. In many ways, my works are glimpses as I walk through and pass by. The gathered objects, photos, writings that I use as sources for paintings are tangible ways that I attempt to cling to the liminal and to rely on the landscape as a source of comfort and resilience.

How has your work shifted and evolved over time?

My work has always sort of meandered around ideas of the landscape and memory. Four years ago, I created a series of assemblages that were in response to my almost obsessive searching for areas of void and partial stories in my day-to-day experience and acknowledging that everywhere I walked there was a story buried in the soil. Traveling regularly has had an incredible impact on my work and studio practice. In the summer of 2017 and 2018, I had the opportunity to live and create in Italy. While abroad, I was captivated by items that appeared latent and discarded, as these were bits of evidence of a fragmented story of this new place, an example of the environments that I was living in but not entirely a part of. I became aware of my voyeuristic role in surveying my surroundings. My work took a shift: it investigated the metaphysical and transcendental aspects of life that appeared initially as humble and modest. This investigation of the mundane and memory continued. In my current work, I see remnants of each previous series—the holding on to mundane objects, the heightened sense of observation, the projection of personal narratives and emotions, disjoining and abstraction of memory—in relationship to my current landscape.

Many of your paintings subtly depict natural elements - often hinting at a landscape or environment while blurring the line between real and imaginary. Where do you find inspiration for your work?

My work is inspired by everyday life and my interactions with the environment. Whenever I go for walks, hikes, or travel, or move through my day-to-day schedule, I’m on the look-out for potential sources for paintings. I am intrigued by placement and proximity. The way leaves fall delicately on either side of a crack in the sidewalk, how a cigarette butt nestles and hides underneath plants along the river, a chunk of an orange traffic cone buried under sand. These are moments that cause me to pause, stand still, and linger. I think about the sensate in my surroundings—and this is often visible in the texture within the works. When working on a piece, I consider what the ground feels like, did a heaviness hang in the air, and how can I convey this through paint and mark.

My paintings are an act of unearthing—revisiting landscapes, relationships, and emotions. The density of the paint is similar to the dust and dirt on some of the objects found along the road; color palettes echoing the tints and tones of river glass on a tray. My process is a negotiation of adding and taking away and the physicality of painting with the projection of emotion to reflect the essential experience of the memories meditated upon. I leave clear poignant moments and blur other details.

Your color palette often consists of vibrant, saturated greens with pops of reds, oranges and purples. Can you tell me about the role of color in your work?

Color is emotive and carries meaning. Where my work highlights daily experience, I use color to imitate the way that memory imprints or “stamps” on the brain. The more sharp or vivid a color, the more vivid the experience in retrospect. The drawings carved into the paint signify the indelibility; the softness of washes suggest the floating, fleeting, and disjoining that occurs with distance. Personal concepts filter on the surface through mixing palettes that are appealing while adding a texture, mark, or unexpected color to disrupt the reverie. I pair what I observe with what I feel and use formal elements to process and expand the story.

What are you working on at the moment?

Right now, I am working on two projects. In the middle of March, when the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” orders took effect in Michigan, I initially lost steam in my studio mostly because I had just installed two shows right before the mandate and was grieving the loss. To keep myself active in the studio and to help process and reflect on what is going on in the world, I created a prompt to make at least one small daily painting inspired by an experience or sight while in quarantine and trying not to put pressure or constraints on my creative process. Many of these works have become unintentionally tied to the landscape as I observed Spring coming to Michigan. Through these daily paintings, I have noticed my observational skills strengthened, and I am more sensitive to the tactility of my surroundings. This series is slowing down now, though I know that I will still create smaller paintings inspired by the landscape.

How has Instagram impacted your career as an artist?

Instagram has broadened my network of artists and exposed me to some incredible contemporary artists across the globe. I created my art Instagram account in 2014 and I can honestly say I’ve met many artists and fellow creatives that I now consider friends. Some of the artists that I followed early on, I’ve still kept in touch with. A few weeks ago I was chatting with an artist through direct messages reminiscing on how we’ve followed each other for over five years on Instagram. It’s been really fun to see how our creative practices and journeys have evolved.

Where do you hope to see your work in the next 5 years?

What a question! I’m constantly thinking about goals—shows to apply to, collaborative project ideas, teaching opportunities. In the future, I foresee myself continuing this meditation on place and memory, and developing an empathetic voice as I learn more about my surrounding environments. I hope in the next five years, my work has steadily evolved, that I’m more confident than ever about my artistic voice, and that I’m making thoughtful work that is meaningful to myself and to others.

Victoria FryJuly 2, 2020