Artist Talk: Dawn Lowndes

Salt Life | Laurie Maves

April 5, 2019 “Salt in its natural form is a crystalline mineral, essential for life in general. We are made of salt, we preserve with salt, wars have been fought over salt. We avoid pouring salt in our wounds, we throw it over our shoulder for good luck, while it still inevitably runs within our tears.” “When you get to be a certain age in this life, it seems you can allow yourself to cut through the bullshit and get to what is real and true. I’m finally at a point in my life where I feel my artworks reflect as much. These paintings honor and inspire a life chosen to live in south Florida that feels real and true—I’m living it now. I’m living the “Salt Life” with all the previous considerations about what salt is to a human, a community, and a culture. I see the “Salt Life” as what is essential for my own life, what I’m made of, how I’m no longer at war with myself, and how in all of my tears, I ache to preserve what I have at this moment, knowing all moments are fleeting. This “Salt Life” means an authentic representation of intuitively made paintings and mixed media works reflective of life change, life choice, and the appreciation of a mindful, open-hearted existence that embraces ridding of the unnecessary and honoring the authenticity of me.” – Laurie Maves About Laurie Maves Laurie Maves Guglielmi has always been an artist. She spent her childhood with her family in Freeport, Illinois, along with her larger-than-life imagination, always creating her own reality (often to the chagrin of her small town mid-western parents).  There was nothing more she wanted to do, than to make something out of nothing. And if she could make something beautiful, she saw herself as a superhero. While living in Denver, Colorado in the late 1990’s, Laurie took a leap of faith and gradually transitioned from her profession in the non-profit sector as an art therapist to that of a full-time fine artist and live performance painter. After nearly two decades of living and working in the Rocky Mountain Region of Colorado, she relocated to the Sun Coast of Florida, where she currently resides in Sarasota with her husband, Ralph Guglielmi. In March 2019, Laurie opened her first artist studio dedicated solely to art therapy and teaching. She calls her studio, “The 11th Orange” as it is located in downtown Sarasota at 11th and Orange Streets in a brilliant old yellow and orange building. In the 1400 sq. foot space, she has 2 classrooms with 12′ ceilings committed completely to teaching her “BE FREE” large scale abstract painting classes as well as arts and expressive therapy workshops.  By focusing on the sacred act of mark making, Laurie finds a meditation in painting and experiences a deep spiritual connection in the act of creating. She hopes her students find uplifting experiences while painting and creating in this new space. In her own large-scale abstract experience, Laurie continues to find that the unplanned final images she creates while painting are often only the culmination of her exploratory process. By working in this way, she often feels that she is not making the paintings, but rather allows the paintings to make themselves.