Artist Statement — Laura Mandelson

My work

The work that I have been making over the past two years is an exploration of aging, mortality and the passage of time.  It is also a response to the pervasive cultural anxiety of 2019 and 2020.  I use images of the natural world, the garden and images taken from art historical reference.  I am using image and context to create meaning.

Several of the pieces are installations of series of ink and pencil drawings on mylar layered over watercolors, many of which are re-used or re-purposed from years of drawing, painting and teaching.  I have been reusing materials and re-purposing artwork with the intention of “using myself up” before the end of my life.  The “bodices” in the series, “What to Wear” are an exploration of how we clothe ourselves and how we might wish to clothe ourselves.  In this series I have also used embroidery floss on fabric that has been printed with my own imagery.  The installation, “20,000 Years of Painting” was my response to working at home instead of at the studio at the beginning of the pandemic.  It was my way of revisiting, reclaiming and refreshing the art historical images that were an inherent part of my early art education.