Hi. I’m Lori. I’m a painter and printmaker inspired by big skies and open landscapes, travel and daily life. I simplify shapes, saturate them with color and highlight them with contrast. Much of my work focuses abstractly on the prairie. I take a daily look at the patch of big bluestem growing in my small, urban front yard. This graceful, resilient plant reminds me of the subtle changes in color, texture and line that Nebraska’s native prairie landscapes provide. During the height of COVID-19 pandemic, I installed large garden beds of native pollinators — grasses and wildflowers — as well as raised beds of edibles. In my mind, planning and planting the gardens is intertwined with making paintings, as they all celebrate and deepen my connection to nature.
Mixing oil paint and softened beeswax allows me to create paintings that hold depth, complexity and texture, some of the same qualities about the prairie that I appreciate. My painting process is physically active. I use rollers, wide blades and brushes to apply paint, then blot, scrape and carve with knives and points to reveal underlying colors. These lines and colors convey motion and emotion.
As a child, I expected to be an artist when I grew up. I took a circuitous route through journalism and higher education public relations before I enrolled in a watercolor class at the Joslyn Art Museum on a whim in 2000. I reconnected with that early passion and it changed my direction.
I welcome visitors to my studio on the second floor of Hot Shops Art Center. Give me a call, send me a text or email; come see me and my work.