DIGITAL PAINTING

I took after school art lessons from a wonderful woman in Jacksonville, Florida from third to fifth grade. Her influence on my work shows through in my love of impressionist strokes and blend of color palettes. After moving from Jacksonville to Huntsville, Alabama I began playing clarinet in the school band, which unfortunately met at the same time as the art classes. Second semester of my senior year I switched out of band and into art class, which was very much a self taught class. As I entered college I had decided to major in Nursing, a major which required me to take three Art History classes before applying for the upper division. My sophomore year was the year my plan for my life made a complete change.

It was the fall semester, the trees outside the window were beautiful shades of orange and yellow and red, and I was sitting in a lecture hall listening to the dean of the art history college (a guest speaker for my class) talk about her job and area of expertise within art history. As I sat in class (which I had no trouble paying attention to, as opposed to my science classes) I heard the passion and excitement in the way she talked about the Chinese art in which she specialized, and I realized I wanted that feeling. I wanted to have a major where I could travel and look at the art of other cultures and see how different people used their media to express themselves throughout history. I started talking to my parents about the possibility of changing my major.

The next semester I took the rest of my lower division Nursing classes – Microbiology, Survey of Art History I, World History II, and Literature. The survey of Art History course reaffirmed that the arts were what I was passionate about, and I met with an adviser about switching into Art History for the Fall semester. With a major in Art History, you’re required to have some sort of Minor. You’re also required to take six hours of studio art credit. After taking my six studio hours I realized that I wasn’t ready to be done with creating for myself what I studied others making. I took all the courses to have a minor concentration in digital media, but was able to fit a few extra painting courses in my schedule as well. After meeting with my adviser in Spring ’14 I declared Studio Art as a double major, and have been happily up to my ears in art supplies ever since.

EMAIL: laureneich@littlebleustudio.com