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Work Samples

1918-1908-1928

Native American women, woman dancing with bear and White woman modeling flapper clothing, with cityscapes behind.
(oil on aluminum). Panel 1 marks the 1918 travels of Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone to Europe as one of the first women to entertain WWI troops, following her rave debut at the Metropolitan Opera as singer and performer. Panel 2 shows the origin of the Charleston traced to The Grizzly Bear dance c.1908 San Francisco, the first of a series of “animal dances” and a scandalous break from previous forms. Panel 3 represents work from French couture houses, a radical shift in women's clothing and social norms.

_selfportrait_with_mask.jpg

Woman with sunglasses and mask in grayed tones.
Self-Portrait With Mask, 2020. Oil on copper.

Lichen: The First Symbiotic Relationship

Lichen with the title on ribbons, flanked by two seated figures.
(oil on copper, 27" x 14"). This is a take on history painting, commemorating "the marriage of fungi and algae” that creates extraordinary varieties of lichen. Fungi brings water and nutrients into the system and the algae can photosynthesize, while a fungus cannot. Inspired by the book "Braiding Sweetgrass."

Ghost

(oil on wood panels). A meditation on the close proximity of contemporary women to a past that offered limited choices, as well as women who broke those bounds, like the Victorian Arctic explorers who climbed glaciers in corsets and skirts. The ghosts of both haunt women today. That's one way to look at it.

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About Laurie

Baltimore City

I’ve recently returned to Baltimore from Washington, DC, where I worked many years as a TV news illustrator/producer (Associated Press), in various media capacities at the Smithsonian, and raised a son. I graduated from MICA with a BA in multimedia, drawing and animation, and hold a master’s in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University. I was a founding member of Impossible Theater, a collaborative company using computer controlled slide projection (disbanded following performance in the Brooklyn... more

History Painting

I like to commemorate overlooked events in the representational tradition of history painting, yesterday’s news and natural history, as we reassess our relationship to the past.

  • North Dakota

    Curved horizon line with sun, man in a suit with a mask and figure rising from water
    (Oil on wood panels, 1' x 3') Just before the Dakota Access Pipeline protests began in 2016 around the Standing Rock Reservation, I was thinking about the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota, so large and bright that they are visible from space.

  • The Dawn of Capitalism

    woman seen from back in antique clothing
    (oil on Masonite panels, 9" x 5'). Pondering the role of women and the demand for textiles in proliferation of the capitalist system, with its beginnings in the Netherlands.

  • Ghost

    (oil on wood panels). A meditation on the close proximity of contemporary women to a past that offered limited choices, as well as women who broke those bounds, like the Victorian Arctic explorers who climbed glaciers in corsets and skirts. The ghosts of both haunt women today. That's one way to look at it.

  • Electric Lightning

    Landscape with 2 figures and lightening bolt, with scientific experiment with rod on the right, against a rainy gray sky.
    (oil on aluminum). Representing the “sentry-box experiment” organized by naturalist Thomas-François Dalibard and performed during a storm at Marly-la-Ville, France, in 1752. It was based on ideas outlined in in Franklin’s 1751 publication "Experiments and Observations on Electricity." When sparks were visible on the insulated iron rod, it was clear that electricity was present in thunderclouds and lighting. Franklin performed his famous key and kite experiment a month later. My interest was piqued when I saw a rare bolt of positive lightning.

  • Lichen: The First Symbiotic Relationship

    Lichen with the title on ribbons, flanked by two seated figures.
    (oil on copper, 27" x 14"). This is a take on history painting, commemorating "the marriage of fungi and algae” that creates extraordinary varieties of lichen. Fungi brings water and nutrients into the system and the algae can photosynthesize, while a fungus cannot. Inspired by the book "Braiding Sweetgrass."

  • 1918-1908-1928

    Native American women, woman dancing with bear and White woman modeling flapper clothing, with cityscapes behind.
    (oil on aluminum). Panel 1 marks the 1918 travels of Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone to Europe as one of the first women to entertain WWI troops, following her rave debut at the Metropolitan Opera as singer and performer. Panel 2 shows the origin of the Charleston traced to The Grizzly Bear dance c.1908 San Francisco, the first of a series of “animal dances” and a scandalous break from previous forms. Panel 3 represents work from French couture houses, a radical shift in women's clothing and social norms.

  • April 2020

    Neighborhood with people visible at a bus stop and through windows into apartments. A full moon is visible.
    (Prismacolor pencil on black paper) Lockdown.

Psychology

 
My first painting sale, at age 15, was to a psychiatrist at the Towson Art Fair. I’m interested in the therapeutic aspects of the arts and the symbolic language of dreaming. Sometimes art provides the means for spiritual and psychological insight and survival.

  • My Indigeneity

    Woman in traditional eastern European dress in landscape
    (oil on aluminum). Working with the Museum of The American Indian was an immersive and indelible experience of Native cultures. It led me to look at my family roots in Eastern European tribal culture, given form by the cycle of agricultural seasons. Many nature-based pre-Christian beliefs are still visible in textile motifs.

  • Sky 2021

    gray cloudy sky with green landscape
    (oil on wood). Grey pandemic skies.

  • Sentiment.jpg

    Image of child's toy train with drawing, flower and butterfly wings.
    (oil on masonite panels). I look for the line between authentic tender sentiment and kitsch.

  • Jaguar

    Woman climbs boxes in dancing skirt, pursued by jaguar
    (Prismacolor pencil, gouache, acrylic on black paper). Dream image, with my mother and son.

Connect with Laurie

website:
museum180
[email protected]

Laurie's Curated Collection

View Laurie's favorite works from other Baker Artists

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Invocation for The Last Full Measure of Devotion (seance for patriots' dreams)

historic garments, shoes, video, fabric, glitter, flowers
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Lauren AdamsVisual Arts
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View curated collection