Lauren Judge is a multi-disciplinary artist, living and working in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. She has recently joined the Waterloo Community Arts Centre as General Manager, gaining a new perspective of the local arts community, and takes delight in providing arts programs and events for the public at affordable cost.
Lauren is primarily a hand knitter. With 20 years of experience, Lauren creates her own patterns and original designs for women’s accessories. She chooses to work exclusively with 100% natural fibres, with a flair for silks, wool and alpaca in natural pigments.
Since 2008, Lauren’s artistic interests have shifted to painting with acrylics in an abstract style, taking elements from the styles of Picasso and Pollock. Recently her focus has shifted to a pouring technique that allows her to apply a passionate dose of colour and texture. Her techniques and the added use of symbolism help to convey a social or environmental message.
Lauren also has experience in stained glass. She prefers to work in large pieces, breaking down scenery into shapes and planes, building in perspective and value, and experimenting with texture.
You can learn more about Lauren Judge by visiting www.laurenjudge.com
To learn more about the Waterloo Community Arts Centre visit www.buttonfactory.org
Tag Archives: biography
Portrait of the Artist: Jakki Annerino
Jakki Annerino is a visual artist and a singer/songwriter/guitar player living in Kitchener, Ontario. She helps run the Black Walnut Folk Club, a Kitchener-Waterloo acoustic music venue.
Jakki is a mostly self-taught artist who likes to convey a sense of whimsy and history in her artwork. She makes collage pendants, wall jewellery, altered books, and greeting cards incorporating various remnants and relics, both natural and vintage, in her work. She is drawn to artifacts from other people’s lives that have been discarded such as old photos, books, antique lace and letters. A dragonfly wing, a bird feather or an intriguing bit of rusted metal may also somehow find its way into her art. She also makes photo greeting cards. Jakki is now exploring encaustic collage and hopes to have several pieces ready for the Central Art Walk.
email – annerino_jakki@rogers.com
photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakkila
Portrait of the Artist: Esther Devries-Lasby
Esther Devries-Lasby is a potter from Kitchener, Ontario. You can contact her at edevrieslasby@hotmail.com.
Artist’s Statement
The inspiration for my pottery comes from three sources; my garden, textile arts and visions of pots I saw while living in Japan.
It is fun to incorporate elements from the garden in my pots. I often marvel at the texture I can find in leaves and seed pods. I like to preserve a bit of that in my clay.
Quilts amaze me, and when I am not in my potting studio I am at my sewing machine. I often roll out a slab of clay and treat it like a piece of cloth by building in quilts of texture and cutting out pieces to be assembled.
While living in Japan, I learned to see the hands that had made a pot through fingerprints, slight ‘imperfections’, and gifts from the ‘kiln gods’.
My things are hand made, and if you can still see traces of my hands, I am pleased.
Enjoy my pots.
Portrait of the Artist: Thera Ip
Thera is a 30-year old local Torontonian, born and bred. She has worked in jewellery design since high school. For over ten years, she has been creating jewellery and sculpture as a hobby. After the birth of her beautiful daughter Gyvina, she decided to pursue a career in jewellery making. As an outdoor enthusiast, she collects rocks, trees, driftwood, branches, berries, insects, etc. and has found her niche by making them the central focus of her jewellery. She uses the materials in their original form and hopes that everyone can admire the energy and beauty that comes from our surroundings.
Thera’s creative drive and her use of natural and recycled materials comes from her parents. Newly emigrated from Hong Kong (and giving a new story each time they are asked why they decided to give her the name) they accidentally named her after a historically and culturally rich (and explosive) island in the Aegean Sea. The island Thera (now known as the island Santorini) has been linked to myths ranging from the mysterious Lost Island of Atlantis to the tale of the migration of lemmings off the Norwegian coast into the sea. These myths illustrate her serious and whimsical sides. She is very proud of her link to this beautiful island and strives to always be the best that she can, standing by the quality, originality, conception and production of her jewellery from beginning to end. Thera says, “I hope that my collection of jewellery and stories can be a source of inspiration and enjoyment for all.”
http://www.therajewellery.com
Artist’s Statement
Much of my work comes from my natural curiosity to seek understanding and beauty from everyday objects and people from the society that I live in. I believe that the objects that we surround ourselves with have a soul and that I am the translator to bring out their story and beauty for others to see. My inspiration comes from nature, long walks in the back-country, abstract art, broken barns, pails and bags by the curb ? anything that sparks my curiosity and arouses my sense of being connected to the energy and conscious of the world that I live in. As an environmentalist by heart, all the materials used are either natural or recycled and in its final life cycle, thus very little waste is generated as a result. Each completed artwork is a unique and meditative process, and each piece has it?s own story and experience to share with the wearer. I hope that my jewellery will inspire responsible consumerism, and that people will take the time to see the beauty that naturally exist in the world; things that we see everyday that we take for granted.
Portrait of the Artist: Calvin Howard
Calvin Howard is a visual artist currently residing in Waterloo, Ontario.
His images are created through a unique “metamorphosis” using classic photography, Photoshop technology, artistic vision and perhaps… just a touch of magic.
Each individual work of art beckons us to enter a world unlike our literal reality: A world where hope, dreams, and imagination blend to reflect flexibility, growth, and transformation.
As he explores his own evolving awakenings, we the viewers of Calvin’s art find ourselves moving also inward, deeper into our own soul journeys.
It is Calvin’s sincere intention that all of his art shall inspire: joy, attention, consciousness, and change.
You can visit the Aquarian Arts website at http://www.aquarianarts.net.
You can purchase custom-framed prints here.
Portrait of the Artist: Erin Moffat (Colour and Light)
Colour and Light features unique, abstract stained glass art by Erin Moffat. A research chemist by day, Erin enjoys the fusion of science and art. She draws inspiration from nature for much of her work, and also likes to geek out a bit with her fun caffeine-themed pieces. Erin’s fascination with Celtic imagery also shines through in the beauty of her knotwork in glass.
You can visit her Website at http://www.colourandlight.ca.
Portrait of the Artist: GK Eckert
GK works out of her Kitchener home studio, Musikhaus Studio of Creativity. She began offering guitar lessons in 1987, later adding voice, performance, and finally, painting lessons and an art gallery. She hosts music and art events, and continues to offer private instruction.
A life-long artist, she is the daughter of a German artist, and granddaughter of a German architect. For her, artistic expression came early and naturally.
“I call my paintings fantasyscapes; wild, with simplicity, peace and well being; without boundaries. I hope to create soothing relief from this extremely fast paced, highly stimulating environment we live in.”
The Homer Watson Gallery, the KOR Gallery (a juried show), Wyndham Gallery, the City of Kitchener Rotunda Gallery, and KPL (a private show) have all shown her work. Cards with her prints were offered for sale at the Paper Tree in Waterloo.
Currently, her paintings are being shown at Cardinal Counselling on Belmont Avenue, from June to September. She will be offering her paintings for sale at the Paris ECOFEST July 25-26, 2009.
The public is always welcome at her studio, and invited to participate in the monthly coffee houses where GK performs her music and displays her art.
Email: musikhaus@rogers.com
Phone: 519-576-5517
Website: http://www.musikhaus.ca/
Portrait of the Artist: D. H. McKee
D. H. McKee is a multi-skilled artist who works with painting, mixed media, journaling, digital photography, music, and video. He has a range of experience in various media, but painting is his first and foremost output; painting is a way of expressing ideas and emotions which cannot be formed through words or sound.
His education has helped him integrate film and video aesthetics into his artwork: video stylistic themes work their way into the paintings, and one can discern letterboxing, test patterns, scrambled pay-television signals and over-saturated colours in the works. It is in this manner that he explores different mediums and surface techniques.
Paintings are created quickly, passionately. They are assembled adjacent to thought and emotion, and are influenced by music, noise, television, and computers. The highly decorative images are richly textured and overflowing with colour. They are a combination of cubist and surrealist influences on non-representational abstract forms — essentially the interpretation of different external stimuli. The image dictates its final form, resulting in a surprising, unpredictable finished product.
He lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. You can visit his Website here, and purchase online prints and framed photographic prints here. His Behance network page is here.