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LAURA LARK
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Slouch, 2005
ink, paint marker
6" x 4"
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Artist Statement
As an artist and writer, I find that with each body of work I am trying to create a personal narrative. Large, obsessive works reflect memories of teenage angst, ennui, and loneliness; a hand drawn ground of psychedelic patterns—memories of fabrics and posters from my youth—surrounds isolated figures. And figures in some works, although based on personal photos or magazines that my mother used to thumb through, become facets of my persona, both real and imagined: the entitled white suburbanite; the whiny victim; the bold, independent outsider/warrior; the accident-prone geek; and the empty woman who does nothing but stuff her face, only seeking comfort.
In concurrence with making other works, I have, in the past year, carried a camera everywhere I went and have tried to photograph everyone I met or already knew. Now, using these and photos that my father took of our family when I was a child, I find myself fascinated by the “bad” photos: the shots where a subject jerks away from the camera, where he or she is patently miserable or bored. While translating each into a painting, I find myself realizing just how faulty a subject for reminiscence a photo can be. This, of course, delights the perpetual storyteller—a single image, a micro-moment in time becomes the basis for a new round of narratives, ones in which drawings, written works, videos, and installations will ultimately emanate. 
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