My mission is to honor and explore the human experience through creative offerings that fuse portraiture and symbology as an act of storytelling. My paintings and public art works are an investigation into how we navigate our personal journeys—using language, symbols and images—to arrive at a destination. Producing the arts incubator Think Greatly has enabled me to support public art development through community engagement and female-driven collaborations.
In the studio, my work honors the human experience through abstracted portraiture and symbolism, where patterns and forms coalesce to create a distinct vernacular. In general this symbolism is about community, connection and personal journeys, with elements such as ladders, staircases, porcupine quills, house shapes, circles, hexagons, repetitive brush strokes, stacked bowls and tally marks. The symbol I use most frequently in my work is an abstracted magpie. This bird is fascinating to me because it is cloaked with superstition. Magpies are described in various folklore and historic literature to be thieves, chatterboxes, gossips, and ominous creatures. In fact, a group of magpies is called a ‘mischief.’ Cultural lore also translates one’s destiny based on the number of magpies seen, and to salute the first magpie one sees as a sign of respect and wish for good fortune. It is this perception of the magpie that inspires my work – the bird is an omen of change, and change, good or bad, is invaluable. In this way, the presence of the magpie is a calling to enter a crucible of the spirit. It asks you to rethink social norms, to shift perspectives, to be open to personal transformation. This magpie symbolism is relevant in my studio work, but also in the context of public art because it calls for empathy, a central tenet of maintaining safe spaces.
In the public realm, I am driven by work that nurtures neighborhood appreciation and community-building, with an emphasis on celebrating diverse communities, the inclusivity of public spaces and cultivating the discovery of common ground that we share for the future. My work is known to be vibrant and dynamic, with the main objective to put a smile on someone's face and brighten their day. Much of my social practice is rooted in community and stakeholder ownership. As such I have partnered with schools, neighborhood organizations and Main Street boards to visualize and execute the public art projects within communities. As a muralist for private clients or project manager and collaborator for developers, I use this same methodology.
How can public art enrich your community and make it stronger? How can it give its viewers a sense of place, pride and belonging?
As an artist for hire, I believe in collaboration over competition. I aim to uplift women in the arts through projects I design and curate. I like to partner with artists whose work and business acumen I admire; I also strive to use my position to provide opportunities to those looking to build experience. I see my projects as an opportunity to bring good people together and use art as a means to drive economic development, community relationships, and stakeholder ownership.
website: thinkgreatly.com
Social media: @thinkgreatly (IG)
purchase work/ represented by:
dk Gallery, Marietta GA https://dkgallery.us/
New Elements Gallery, Wilmington, NC https://newelementsgallery.com/
Lauren Pallotta Stumberg
770-557-2057
lauren@thinkgreatly.com