Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Host.
Hi Laura, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Growing up in West Michigan (Grand Haven), I was always involved in art activities. I do believe part of my coping mechanisms during hectic or crazy times is closing my eyes and seeing Lake Michigan’s horizon. It always is a calming and settling force within me. I moved to Ann Arbor for college (U of M’s Architecture and Design College) and began my journey to become an art teacher while majoring in painting and ceramics. After getting my BFA, I stayed in Ann Arbor- it’s a hard city to move from! I did teach a bit (substitute teaching is quite a learning experience!) and I did odd jobs of illustrating a children’s encyclopedia, waitressing, teaching day care and saved my money to go on a European trip with a couple of friends. I was gone for 3 months traipsing around Europe and experiencing all I could. After coming back, I got married a few months later and my husband (who was brought up to travel) and I went around the world for 6 months. I always tell young people – travelling while young gives you a whole new perspective and it’s a lot easier to do before you start your “regular” life. My husband and I (and later with our 2 kids) have travelled extensively throughout the world. We just came back from Iceland with them and I’m still brimming with excitement of digesting all that we saw and experienced. It’s amazing how humans can adapt to all kinds of environments and make them livable! I almost felt like we had landed on the moon – the landscape and adaptations were very different from what I am used to! Already I started working on some paintings that reflect this astonishing environment.
When my husband’s work made a daily commute to the Detroit area necessary, we finally decided to move closer to work and leave our beloved Ann Arbor. Before children arrived, we went around the world again – only this time in 6 weeks. There are still some parts of the world that we need to visit and now it is a bit easier as our schedules aren’t so ironclad! I hadn’t painted for some time and when my daughter was born., I realized I needed to start seriously painting again. I went to the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center in 1980 and became hooked on watercolor painting and the art center. It is my creative home – for sure! I’ve been teaching adults there since 1993 (starting with experimental water media and then branching into monotype printmaking after taking a monotype class at the center. I fell in love immediately!
After painting for about 6 years at the BBAC, a friend of a friend was at a party and told me she was starting an artist cooperative gallery in downtown Pontiac. My ears pricked up and I got to thinking – I have a lot of paintings under my bed and in closets and anywhere else I could store them! Hmmm. I went to the organizational meeting and signed up that night. This friend had started the gallery all by herself and she soon realized that it was a lot of work and she needed to get help. I think there were 8 of us, at first, our numbers climbed to 12 and after a couple of years we felt that we – the artists in the gallery – could run the business, so we hired a lawyer to draw up the legal papers etc. and we gave notice that we would be renting from our landlord and she could concentrate on something else – she was happy to be relieved of the “burden”. So, Lawrence St. Gallery was born in 1987. I am the last of the original members still involved.
We moved to Ferndale in 2003 and immediately felt it was a good decision to move as many more people were downtown and it was a lively place. Part of the mission of an artist cooperative is to get your work out in the public. I fully believe that it is a must and I love helping artists learn the business of art as well as getting their work seen! The Gallery has the ability to show 30 members work – each artist has 8 linear feet to show their work. We mix up all the work so each piece shines! There are other parts of the gallery that members can show more work than their 8 feet: greeting card racks, bins for unframed work, jewelry cabinets for miscellaneous jewelry, and a wall of small – smaller works highlighted. Each member works 2 work shifts a month (with an occasional extra shift when months are longer) and have a job or two to help the gallery operate. So besides having your work on the walls, the members are learning more and more each month about how to display their art, what sizes are selling, what works and what doesn’t, getting their work photographed, categorized, and getting inspired by the other work in the gallery as well! Also learning about advertising, press releases, display, and a myriad of other things filter into our members brains. These skills were not taught or even talked about when I was in art school. It’s great also to have a team doing a lot of the work! Part of the gallery’s goals, besides displaying and selling the members work, is helping other area artists get their work in the public by holding every other month a competition juried by area artists and professors which brings in more of an art-loving public. Starting in January the exhibit is called the Best of the Best – all the top award winners of the previous year are invited to be in a group show to give them a little more award. In February, The Body Eclectic is held and features all-media artwork featuring the Figure; in April, the competition is called Exposures: Photography; June is our Summer Invitational when members invite their friends and admired artists; August is the Motor Muse 2(this year we had a wonderful exhibit with the Car as our muse during August and the Dream Cruise); in October the fall show has various themes& media ( this coming year will be the Art of Dreams- an All Media exhibit); and our annual December “Think Small “show. (all work must be 12 inches or smaller in any direction) has great choices for gifts. Every month has a featured show and the whole gallery is rehung. This gives our art-loving public new things to look at. There are usually 2 receptions during the month on Sunday afternoons. Parking is free on Sundays! At the Mid-Month receptions, we usually have poetry readings that are inspired by the artworks in the gallery. The Detroit Poetry Salon members (and also a growing number of our members!) get inspired by the work in the gallery and then read their ekphrastic poems at that reception. Occasionally, we will have the featured artist do a demonstration of their work techniques, during these receptions. The gallery has a website that viewers can see what’s at the gallery that month and if something catches their attention, they can buy off the website. All the members have their works of the month on the website as well. Each year we seem to attract more attention from artists entering and people coming into the gallery as well. And the more people into the gallery, the more one’s art will be seen! Much more than under my bed!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
life has a habit of offering roadblocks, interruptions, as well as opportunities. My best times are while I’m creating and even if whatever I made isn’t quite up to snuff, I still had a great time exploring.
Some have said they don’t want to sell their work – as they are too close to it. I feel that the best times I have had with a piece is during the creation and if someone feels that they want to live with a piece I’ve made – I’m all for that! It’s gratifying that someone will pay for your work and you had the privilege of creating it. Once it’s done – it’s done!
I feel that the artists are the beginning of a lot of businesses – without the artist where would the art supply store be? Without the artists’ work where would the framing businesses be? Without the artists where would the galleries be?
I’m just saying we are all in this together and if I can help another artist with anything – I cherish that!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I usually identify my work as abstracted nature. I paint with water media – that is, any media that will mix with water and on paper.
I love the feeling and look of watercolor and printmaking papers. Collage may find it’s way to my compositions as well.
Leaves, twigs and other natural items can be used to create imagery as well. I like experimenting with natural items and when I’m creating with monoprints, one thing leads to another – I don’t have a final image in my head – it keeps refining at every step. I guess it’s the school of “What would happen if I do this?” Sometimes at the end of the day, I might cut up the work into interesting shapes and start fresh the next day. I tell my students that if you don’t fall in love with what you are doing right away – then you are lucky as you will be brave and try anything as you aren’t worried about ruining it.
I love the aspect of printmaking – painting on a piece of plexiglass and then putting it through the printing press. The image is in reverse and to me that is the beauty of reacting to something you didn’t expect. The trick is knowing when you are done – usually it is a surprise for me but I am ready for the thought “This is done!”
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
A willingness to try new techniques along with techniques you have conquered. Each piece is a work in progress and the feeling that you have happy with something is Great!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://laurawhitesideshost.com/paintings/ or https://lawrencestreetgallery.com/laura-whitesides-host/
