Laumee Fries

“Punk is not about clothing or hairstyles. It is about the energy drawn from a broken heart in the face of a relentless fate. It’s the ability to read between the lines and to stand one’s ground.“ Glen Matlock (former bass player fort the Sex Pistols)

 

“Obstacles are not blocking the path. They are the path.” Zen saying

 

Artist Statement

In my art I am looking for the wild and fragile beauty and poetry of existence. My job as an artist is to poke tiny holes in the perception of reality – to shed light on all things that we in our society abandon, neglect, or hide out of sight.

I create figurative and abstract paintings on canvas or old and abandoned textiles with egg tempera, soy milk and earth pigments. My illustrative drawings on paper are made with pencil, charcoal, soy, and ink.

Myths, fairy tales and my own written stories are an essential part of my art – but nature and Zen inspire me as well. I create people purely from imagination by slowly painting or drawing them into existence. I like to spend time with them – get to know them in a way – while they slowly evolve in front of me.

My work is about remembering that we all belong to this world in a much deeper sense than we usually think. And about the creative strength, that lurks in dark places and the wildness in the things we neglect.

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My quest as an artist – and the story behind it

My artistic quest is to find beauty and poetry by transforming the darkness.

Surely my art is also shaped by my own darkness – like my traumatic childhood with an alcoholic father for example..

To get away from this as a small child, I often escaped into nature – playing in the mud or running through the vineyards with my dog.

A wild and troublesome friend

Besides nature, art has always been my ally. It was my way of communicating with the world.

But it was also a troublesome friend. I was scorned in art class, was eventually kicked out of school and got rejected from art school many times. But I went on making art nevertheless – even though it became harder and harder.

Secrets, a bulky suitcase, and a turning point

It felt like I had stuffed my wish to create in a far too bulky suitcase – one that I was not allowed to own, but that was chained to my wrist. Whenever I took things out of it I felt guilty somehow. Looking back now, I feel compassion for that young woman. Especially because I had some successful art shows when I started out – despite what art schools, teachers and my own mind told me. But I think my unresolved childhood trauma made things more and more difficult for me.

Until one day I broke apart – literally. In 2018 I had a sepsis and ended up in a coma. When I awoke, I couldn’t move, talk or see properly. Luckily, I still had all my limbs. But it was a shock – and changed my life and me dramatically. In the following year I learned to walk, talk, think and paint again. And I also learned to look inside myself to see the beauty and strength – that besides all the trauma and pain – lay hidden inside that suitcase.

A new persepective

What I found were many things – beautiful ones as well as some weird and some torn. My experiences taught me so much – that life is short, terrifying and wonderful. And that we are all in it together.

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Do you want poetry, art and inspiration in your everyday life? Then visit my gallery and discover my drawings and paintings. Or subscribe to my newsletter full of inspiring stories and art