Have you ever wondered how an installation artist creates work without a large studio space? How about an installation artist with two young kids? In this episode, mixed media artist, Laura Wennstrom shares how she works with found textile materials to create colorful and playful installations. She talks about the first time she moved from 2D work to 3D- in a drawing class in college where she showed up with a quilt! Laura shares about the challenges of working in installation when you have an ever-shifting studio space and what practices she has picked up instead of large scale fiber work while she is focusing on her newborn daughter. She talks about the forms her work takes that is outside of a gallery scene- how showing art in community spaces provides opportunities for a wider audience.
Laura lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She holds an MFA in New Media from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and will return to teach as an Adjunct Professor at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota in the Fall. She also teaches art classes to children and adults through the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Urban Arts Academy and her work has been shown in many group and solo exhibitions around the country. She is the mother of two young daughters.
You can find more about Laura and her work on her website (https://laurawennstrom.com) and follow her on Instagram (@laurawennstrom)
If only I had words eloquent enough to say how deeply amazing this episode is. Laura’s work is so fantastic and the poem she read during this interview stopped me in my tracts and the tears flowed…so beautiful. Thank you for sharing.