Laura Meyers

Jun 22, 2009

Topic: Featured | Tags: , ,


Fresh off the plane from Amsterdam, illustrator Laura Meyers takes a moment to answer a few of our pressing questions about her depiction of sobriety, vanity and fantasy. From doll lover to wheatpaster, she maintains her curiosity about being human while making it a full time gig.

What was your work in Amsterdam about?

I actually decided to take this trip totally last minute, to visit my friend Dave Raphael. The day after I booked my ticket he called me and said he might have gotten me a painting gig! I guess that’s just the way things work out sometimes. He met a guy who owned a bar and needed a mural painted, my name came up, they pulled up my website and that was that. You know, when I got there and saw the wall, I was like, holy shit I wish I had more time here, because I really would have painted something huge and super amazing! But, I was only there for three days, so I had to finish this mural in one day. I had never been before, so I wanted to look around. I ended up painting a character that I’ve painted and drawn a bunch of times, so he’s kind of my trademark now. It looks pretty good. he stands about eight feet high, lookin’ over the canal!

How did you land such a great gig?

Yeah, like I said, it was my friend Dave who set it up! He even primed the wall for me before I got there. It was just one of those things that comes up out of nowhere and just totally works out, even in the tightest of schedules. It’s good to have good creative friends. It really made the trip into something really great for me. Knowing that I’ve got a painting standing in another country is a great feeling! I feel like the finished mural really made everyone super happy, so that made it double-worth it!

What was the best part of the whole experience?

Coming home!

No, it was super fun painting that mural, and the owners of the place were just so happy about the whole thing. Plus, I’ve been wanting to paint something nice and big for a while. I like painting up on top of ladders! But, you know man, I love NY, and I just don’t feel the kind of creative energy I feel here anywhere else! So, it was nice to get back home to my studio.

Do you think our art community could learn something from theirs?

Sure, I mean I think something can always be learned. What was cool about Amsterdam is that everyone seemed excited and interested in art, but I wasn’t really there long enough to interact with many other artists, and I think that’s whats most important, meeting other creative people, talking, working together, at least that’s how I grow and improve and learn. I mean, for example, I’ve been in my studio for a little over a year, after having been painting in my tiny bedroom forever! And in that year, I’ve met so many artists, and had so many ideas, I mean, I feel like I grew more in this year that I had in the last 3 years of painting in my room. It’s just exciting to be around other creative people. All those people thinking and creating, its a great little community to be a part of. I think just being in the middle of things is where you need to put yourself, and wherever it is works, middle of the NY art scene, middle of the Amsterdam art scene.

Do you do your paintings on wood?

I work mostly on canvas. There’s something about looking at a nice big empty white canvas! I love it! But I’m exploring some new things. I’ve been working on some three-dimensional pieces. I made some masks and I built a sheep (on display at Crest Hardware in Williamsburg). I think they’re a good addition to my work. So wood, hmm, maybe not a bad idea!

They exude a lot of sexuality, is that purposeful?

Well yeah, I think that I do it on purpose. Painting the nude is a tricky thing – what some people find beautiful and natural, others find slightly offensive. I like being able to make people have those kind of emotions. I think that sexuality and nudity in any kind of art can be a really powerful image. And I think in my work, in particular, it really helps convey part of what I want people to think about. These big, larger than life figures, stripped down, totally unafraid of their sexuality, but still hiding behind that mask. Plus, the nude figure is just such a lovely thing to paint!

Were you obsessed with mythology as a child? Or still? Why the combination of animal heads with human bodies?

As a little kid. I think it was more just animals in general that I was obsessed with. My friends would play with Barbie’s and I always wanted to be Barbie’s pet dog. It’s funny, I suppose looking at that now, it really explains a lot doesn’t it? But yeah, I suppose, I did read a bit about mythology, religion, symbolism, that kind of thing. But, I started painting the animal heads on portraits of myself. I was playing with the idea of my own personality – being really confident and sure about some things, but really guarded or self conscious about other things. So, the mask, you know, being brave, but hiding your face the whole time. And then it kind of just developed into a larger idea, because I think every person struggles with that duality in their nature. Like the human & animal sides, the confident and self loathing sides. So I thought I’d make a little world of these people, who are actually, us? Maybe they’re just on the other side of the looking glass.

There are unexpected colors used for shadows and highlights.

I never was one for mixing realistic colors, or mixing colors at all! It’s hard to explain why I choose color, honestly, I think I just paint. I use models sometimes, but I just have them pose for preliminary sketches, so the color part is really all done in my head, without any actual reference. So, if I think blue needs to be there, blue needs to be there. Its as easy as that!

I love that, even though your characters are proportional, they’re slightly skewed – why?

I think again its kind of the same thing as the color. I don’t want to paint anything realistic. I would like the idea of a real world, but that’s it. Just the idea. I like to stylize my figures to suit the piece. I do like to use live models. I think they give life to the figure that I’m painting. But, even when using the models, I definitely deliberately alter the real proportions. That’s actually why I like to paint large. I find the larger I work, the more the lines that make up the drawing take on a life of their own. Which makes everything just slightly off, which is a good thing, I think.

What do you attribute your artistic ability to?

Wow, I don’t know. When I was in kindergarten I won first place in an art show at my school, and it just kind of stuck. I think from that point I just decided that I would be an artist, and so I am. Also, when I was young, my grandpa, who was a photographer, really used to push me to work on art. He used to say that no matter what, I had to draw every single day, even if it’s just a line. I always thought that was really great advice. My family is really great and supportive of what I do too, especially my mom. I bet right now, she is on the internet emailing me open calls or grants or gallery info! So, I guess I attribute it to just having it in me to make art, and luckily have the right people around me to make sure that it came out. Thank god too… what the hell would I be doing if I wasn’t making art! I can’t even imagine what my day would day would be like without it!

Laura.Meyers.net

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