Born and raised in Chicago, Laura Makinen enjoyed the visual arts throughout her childhood. She began devoting herself to painting in 2001, when she took classes at Grinnell College, where she was pursuing a BA in Religious Studies. Seeing the Gerhard Richter Retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002 had a strong affect on her, and after finishing her degree at Grinnell, Laura moved to Boston where she completed a second undergraduate degree in painting at the Massachusetts College of Art. After completing her BFA, Laura relocated to San Francisco in 2008. Her work has been included in shows throughout the country including Word of Mouth at Gallery Diet for the Bridge Art Fair at Art Basel, Held Still at the FPAC gallery in Boston, and most recently at the Exploring Contemporary Printmaking exhibit at MarinMOCA. In 2008, two of her etchings appeared in Studio Visit, an Open Studios Press publication. Her paintings can be seen at www.lauramakinen.com