Unordinary Personalities

When I was 10, growing up in a small, rural town in Wisconsin, I begged my mom for a crazy, hippy, fluorescent-colored "Love" wallpaper for my room…only to tear it off a few years later and paint a very large floating head on the wall.   In my current work, I’m again layering, ripping, painting--combining my passion for bright color (because it makes me happy) and faces (because I find them fascinating).  I love taking a classical painting and smashing it with the contemporary.

In Unordinary Personalities, my multilayered paintings begin with color, shapes, and bold mark-making; this is usually intuitive and free-flowing, and I just observe and react to what's happening on the canvas. Almost inevitably a figure shows up and then I explore how the figure and abstract areas interact, going back and forth, layering, removing, adding. I have been in love with faces for as long as I can remember and contrasting them with the abstract elements is something I really enjoy.  In my ceramic works, I use not only faces of people, but also animals and characters, weaving humor (and sometimes irony) into sculptural forms.

The personalities I create reflect my love of and curiosity towards people and the unordinary joy I feel from being alive.

About the Artist
Laura Lloyd is a full-time painter and clay slinger in St. Charles, Missouri. Born in Wisconsin, she remembers drawing faces on everything since she was little and watching TV just to see the faces. She received a degree in commercial art in Wisconsin and worked as a graphic designer for a silk-screening firm. Family changes brought her to Missouri where she decided to pursue a career as an independent artist. She has shown her work in exhibitions and art fairs both locally and nationally.