Laura Gonzalez is young and still relatively new to the SF art scene, having just turned the fresh let’s get crazy age of 21 she is more than ready to conquer the walls of galleries from here to Bangladesh. Laura was hit at the December 6th Collision Course Art Show at the Briefspace Gallery located in San Francisco’s Metreon. Droves of art enthusiast made multiple stops to admire and discuss her work while Dj’s spun in the background and adult beverages flowed like melting ice packs.
Laura is an artist in every sense of the word, having dabbled in fashion, photography and paint. Laura attended FIDM and got her AA in fashion design but paint is her passion but you can find her falling back on her fashion background when it comes to style.
“I guess my style is realism and fashion contemporary inspired. I have always been amazed by paintings that look so much like photographs and I just wanted to paint that way but change my subject matters to be a bit more fashionable and part of life today.”
You can find Laura grabbing pieces of herself and mixing them up to blast her moods in rich oils across blank canvasses.
“I get inspired from all the things I love to do and I mix them together. I love painting, photography, fashion and music. Music being a big part of it. I always listen to music when painting it influences the mood of my paintings. Dark emo songs will inspire me to paint a crying face a little pink Floyd will inspire me towards something surreal. I also draw inspiration from things going on in my life or that of others. Art has always been like a little escape from reality for me.”
Laura has style trust me now defining that style can be a little on the tricky side.
“I’m not sure yet still trying to figure that out. I guess my style is realism and fashion contemporary inspired. I have always been amazed by paintings that look so much like photographs and I just wanted to paint that way but change my subject matters to be a bit more fashionable and part of life today.”
Although Laura has no problem letting the paint fly to see what might come of whim most of her work though is meticulously thought out far in advance of a brush ever being dipped in paint.
“I usually always have an idea all planned out before. I randomly get ideas for paintings all the time I jot them down in my head and plan it all out ahead of time. Sometimes the hard part is choosing which idea I want to come out on canvas first. I draw it out on paper first then trace it to a canvas or just start drawing outlines on my canvas. Then I just take it as it comes from there.”
“I’m pretty big on realism and the human subject, faces and eyes in particular. I believe that a simple portrait can tell just as much as a scene with a bunch of things going on. Eyes tell so many stories and so many people can relate to or get a feeling or memory from a simple expression.”
Laura is not the eccentric wild child of the family, that honor has been bestowed upon her older sister. But at 21 cmon now we know she cuts loose. I’m sure somebody somewhere has caught her with either some fruity drinks, a beer bong or maybe she keeps it classy with a Sex and the City inspired martini.
“All of the above! HaHa I like wine if I’m painting it makes me feel fancy and relaxes my mind so I’m not critical or meticulous in my work any other time you’ll catch me with whatever! Paty took enough of the wild child genes in the family. I think my parents couldn’t handle two wild ones! Ive picked up on some of her little habits though not gonna lie!”
Oil vs. Acrylic?
“Oil, I like to take my time and oil is a good friend and waits for me. We have been good buddies for about 6 years now. Although acrylic is nice too when I need something fast like murals. So oil is like my bff and acrylic is like my acquaintance.”
It’s happening is a piece that fully embodies the spirit of Laura Gonzalez, from the surrealism aspect of the controlled madness that is the thought process behind the work to the little things that make Laura tick.
“Well that one I was inspired by Dali. I wanted to try something sort of surrealism with a message coming through. There’s a mess of things and hidden meanings going on in this one. First of all it’s called its happening because everything is in a sense of change. I’ll start with the butterfly they symbolize change because they change from being caterpillars to beautiful butterflies. There’s a light switch on the wall to turn off the lights in the sky it’s still on though because the sun is still setting hasn’t changed just yet. There’s guitars growing from the ground well because I love guitars and growing from the ground is just a little odd and the brick wall, well I was listening to pink Floyd at the time. The girl she’s scared because change is scary. The pink dripping paint means change can be messy sometimes. The eye in the sky means someone is always aware of your changes and then finally the mirror (which is now located where the roof is) is so that the viewer sees themselves in the painting so they can relate that they are part of that change. So message here is life is always changing its strange, scary and beautiful all at the same time.”
Controlled madness yeah we would say so. This isn’t always the case though sometimes you just got play some crappy radio hits (apology’s for the injected opinion) and let go.
“Well I don’t like to tell people but I really was just listening to my humps by black eyed peas a little too much. But shh that’s our secret!”
Ha not anymore, nothing is sacred. Laura has a bright future in the art game and it is going to be a privilege to watch her grow. Bangladesh be on the lookout!
LB
