Laura Harper Lake is an interdisciplinary artist and designer who works under the moniker Artful Harper Studios at the Exeter Stations Studios in Exeter, New Hampshire. She has been creatively driven her whole life and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Studio Art from Chester College of New England in 2007. Laura has exhibited her work in various galleries throughout New England and virtual publications. In addition to making art, Laura co-hosts a weekly podcast Creative Guts, which is also a nonprofit, that interviews creatives from all disciplines and explores the heart of creativity in New Hampshire and beyond. Harper Lake resides in Epping, NH with her husband.
“This series began as an exercise to merge abstract and representational forms on my canvas, without the constraints of striving for perfection. I wanted to relax my grip and to allow mistakes to live through the work historically. Little did I know it would grow into a deeper practice of allowing my own self to be accepting as I am, and to let go of the physical paragon our culture deems worthy of love.
The human form can receive varying reactions when a person views themselves with a self-assessing mind. At times we may be confident, much like the bold, vivid colors on my wood canvases. In other moments we feel like the thin layer of iridescent paint I use exposing the natural grain beneath; vulnerable and hesitant. I am a pendulum, swinging between these two radically different states of being. However, I aim to see myself as just a human and hold no importance over how I appear; for my body is a vessel for all that I think, do, and create.
In painting figures of varying sizes and shapes, and by accepting myself as I am, I aspire to be countercultural and rebel against our society’s ideologies of beauty.”
