Showing at WEND Jewelry July & August 2024

Artist reception and opening on Thursday July 11th and August 8th from 5 to 8pm at West Seattle Art Walk 

Lauren Quist

Light, texture, contrast - these are the foundational elements I use to create visually pleasing images. I manipulate how light interacts with my work through the combination of paint and embroidery, achieving harmony by blending hard and soft textures. Drawing from the contrasting styles of impressionism and illustrative outline-based art, I aim to bring forth my subjects in a way that is both captivating and aesthetically pleasing. I am inspired by the challenge of achieving harmony through the interplay of hard and soft mediums, blending the softness of impressionism with the contrast of illustrative art.

With Plato’s allegory of the cave in mind, I create art that explores the documentation of moments in time and questions how these moments can be presented. My process begins with a photograph, which I transform into mixed media paintings on canvas through sketching, painting, and lastly embroidery. By incorporating embroidery, I allow light to dance dynamically on my canvas, exploring how it touches various surfaces and highlighting the contrasts within. Through my art, I aim to engage viewers in a deeper exploration of these captured instances, inviting them to share in the beauty and complexity of the world as I see it.

Art has always been my gateway to different worlds and imaginative realms. From a young age, whether it was for school projects or creating characters for stories, I found myself captivated by the transformative power of art. Growing up with impaired vision in one eye shaped my perspective, steering me towards hours of drawing instead of outdoor play. This introspective journey made me more attuned to detail; while peers sketched stick figures, I drew hands with all five fingers. Moving to Romania at eight years old brought cultural immersion but also challenges, as I faced bullying which reinforced art as my sanctuary. Returning to the US after a year abroad, I continued to navigate adversity through art, enriched further by family travels across Europe—experiences in Italy, France, and Greece deeply influencing my artistic voice with diverse cultural nuances.

After graduating high school, I attended the University of Washington to study architecture but graduated instead with a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts (IVA). In college, I focused on drawing and computer animation so my journey into painting and embroidery is largely self-taught. My first mixed media painting, created for my senior studio, combined oil paints and embroidery floss on canvas and was featured in my senior exhibition. In 2013, I participated in my first professional art show, "Around the Square," where I won the Popular Vote Award. Since then, I have continued to exhibit my work in several art shows across the Pacific Northwest.