Laura J. Stein was born in 1955 in New York City. She received a BFA from Cornell University with additional studies at the Pratt Institute, the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, Cooper Union, and the Art Student’s League. Her work has been exhibited in the first issue of Fresh Paint Magazine, at the Next Gallery in Soho, NYC; the Small Works Show at 80 Wash. Sq. E. Gallery, NYC; the Westbeth Painters Space, NYC; the Condesco-Lawler Gallery, NYC; and the Jacob Fanning Gallery, Wellfleet, Ma. She currently lives and works in New York City.
Artist Statement
I like to paint with bits of paper, which is why collage is my medium. I choose to work from source material and do not use a copy machine or a computer in my work. I put down an outline with a pencil on watercolor paper. Mostly I use a ruled edge but sometimes I might do it in a fast and loose way with a drawing inside. Then I fill the space with cut or torn pieces of auction catalogs, grade school primers, old medical textbooks, and maps. Sometimes the picture comes together right away like a completed puzzle. More often though, I put several layers down, scraping here and inlaying there, until it looks right. I like to have a lot of materials around me, and then I make connections and figure out what I want to combine. I use scissors, a razor, and gel medium to paste and attach and scrape away. I have a lot of pre-conceived ideas that become fluid and changeable according to whether things are working out or look right. The collage feels finished when I have created a true pattern with the proper balance of light.
