Artist Statement

Lauren Reid Art. My art is who I am. No matter how much I want to make my art about everyone else, it will always be about me. Because of the way that I see life, everything connects. Just trying to understand the process and layers through trauma. My art displays the inner layers of connecting our minds and addressing the beauty of life without omitting the harsh. My artwork reflects my truth and reality; it visualizes a lively and energetic sense of emotion. It displays bodies and faces to say we’re all getting through something simultaneously. I create art because it gives me a sense of relief and independence in the real world and answer to why things happen. 
I was sitting on the living room couch when my mom first told me that she had cancer. I was only 10, not completely understanding what cancer can do to a person, a family, or a life. I didn’t yet understand its interruption. Two years later, my mom died. My array of emotions and physicality ranged from shaking to tranquil to hysterical tears flowing down my face; I could not comprehend that I lost my mom and best friend. 
She was my first, albeit informal, art teacher. We used to doodle together, and now, when I pull everything together, the meaning of my artwork is how it relates to my mom and her presence in everything I create. Like her, my artwork is bold, vibrant, and true to reality. I get my ideas from the reality of different people and how they cope with hardships. I create art that usually involves people and their emotions. I develop pieces that reflect a story regarding a feeling. I try to put into art the backstories that people don’t know about or want to know about because, sometimes, they are too afraid. 
My inspiration comes from daily conversations, people I see and meet every day, along with their backstories.  My work aims to tell people the beautiful, dark, and true meanings of life as it shows the faces of individuals. I want to help people interpret faces. My artwork consistently explores faces: every face has an unseen backstory, and I love that every facial structure is unique and has something different to say. To look at my face, you might read a story of peace, adjustment, happiness, and ease when in reality, to know my backstory is to understand the deepest grief and heartache. 
Creating art has influenced my life by giving me a sense of who I am and becoming. When I create my work, I am withdrawn from the obligation of life’s struggles because I feel that I’m in a different time and in control of displaying different realities. I exploit the message of what is and how life can be or why it is hard. I rewrite the backstory of the struggle of life hardships instead of the hardships writing the backstory. Everyone has a unique story and goes through struggle. People like to forgive and forget until they realize that pain is still the burden of everything. I understand this. I’m content.