The Artist

LAURA COOPER ELM

Spending over 12 years of her adult life in the central pacific in Micronesia lends a certain detached viewpoint yet has distinctly intensified the clarity of her vision. The Rocky Mountains where she now resides are the complete antithesis of her previous environment except for the mystical quietude of wilderness and the beautiful sky.

Elm received a BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA in 1980 with a major in painting. Formal studies in illustration and ceramics as well as an extensive knowledge of art history, mythology and ancient culture provide the foundation and the technical ability to realize her concepts. In depth studies of literature and psychology have led to a definite philosophical bent while a silly sense of humor provides a lighthearted touch.

Raised in a tiny hamlet just north of New York City, some of the artist's most precious hours were spent gazing at the Unicorn tapestries in the Cloisters. By age nine she was painting still-lifes in oil. Painting remains her primary emphasis.

As a painter, ceramist and sculptor, this artist's prolific body of work takes a pluralistic approach which skirts the edges of realism, abstraction, expressionism, and surrealism. The myriad interconnections are best understood as a visual language. Combining precise detail with color, style and balance, direct observations are transformed to reflect the essence and soul of the subject. Intensity of color and imagery summoned by the evening sky and the lush darkness of night hallmark recent works. Many of these images represent guardians of the soul, protectors of dreams or keepers of cosmic time. Inspiration comes from travel abroad and a kaleidoscope of interests. As poet-painter-philosopher it is the artist's passionate quest to blend the worlds of reason and imagination.

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