MEMBER ARTIST / Laura Baum

For more than 40 years Laura has deeply immersed herself in the Buddhist path, as well as her study of Chinese painting. She has lived in Nepal, India and Thailand for 18 years where the landscapes and cultures have become an integral part of her life and her art. Now she explores the American Southwest in her paintings and ceramics while living in Ramah, New Mexico. Her work reflects this inner experience. She explains: “Throughout the years the inherent luminosity in all life has inspired the journey recorded in my paintings. This free play of light and color enriches our experience of life. All form is a manifestation of our mind: it appears; it dissolves. Our mind has the power to create a vision of our world.

Statement

Laura Baum’s paintings are a remembering of the earth’s landscapes, primordial and present. A birthing, using natural elements, which become precious gifts from the earth. These creations have been born from visualizations and the experience of interconnectedness with all life.

Paintings of landscapes reveal a feeling of great bliss and timelessness. We can sit and watch the skies move, or imagine winds blowing the waters and trees, while cliffs stand still and watch over. The smell of juniper fills the air.

 The ceramic forms resembling stone are colored with watercolors and encaustics. They reflect the sunsets and skies or the lush green landscapes which surround them. The twisted tree vases, like their stone vase counterparts, are covered in moss or are bare. These variations reflect natures unending inspirations, through texture, form and color. There is an element of watching time’s influence on matter. The slow winding of a tree, or stone being worn away by the elements.

Softer surfaces are shown in the use of flowers, made with Nepali lokta paper. Colored with red onion dye harvested from onions grown in the artists garden, as well as the flower stems which are made using dried garlic stocks. Here in Ramah, the garden continues to birth an abundance of materials and inspirations.

 Seeing, touching and appreciating pieces of the world around us. May all beings renew their sense of wonder; understanding the gifts of the earth and the universe in all its splendor.