Artist Bio:

Lauren Ward (b.1992, New Mexico) is an artist, mother, advocate, and rising senior at Brown University. Her work’s been exhibited at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Brown University, Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design and numerous locations throughout Chicago and New England. Ward will be an artist in residence this summer in Ireland at Burren College of Art. She is preparing to apply to grad school within the next year and is painting, drawing and writing to get ready.

Ward is a Sexual Assault Prevention Education (SAPE) Coordinator at Brown, as well as a teaching assistant for the sculpture department.

Artist Statement:

Statement:

My life and my art are one and the same–  they inspire each other. This inspiration gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. Art has kept me alive and by seeing it and making it, I continue to discover hope. I crawled out of hell with a baby and I still love to make people laugh. I’ll be worried when I’ve lost my sense of humor. 

I have extensive experience with dogs and they have protected me and I’ve protected them. They are the protectors of my artwork and a role model for unconditional love. I love that Dog spelled backwards is God because I feel devoted to both. 

My work is autobiographical, sourcing imagery from personal photographs, as well as drawing from psychological themes conceived from my daily journaling. I use paint to create a life on the surface and through it, a way for the viewer to enter my world, which I’ve made from survival and sustained with love. Painting materializes the experiences I have no words for, which connects me to the world in a way I wouldn’t have known if not for my love of painting. I am a visual learner and I don’t believe things are hot until I can see it. I love my daughter beyond description. Motherhood forced me to love myself and that’s why I make art, because I love myself. 

In the words of Slug, “When life gives you lemons you paint that shit gold”. 

~~Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon, Cancer Rising~~