Laura Hines-Jurgens
Gallery
The Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly
Oil and metallic paint on canvas
48" h x 48" w
Ancient Forest
Oil and metallic paint on canvas
48" h x 48" w
Ice Floes
Oil and metallic paint on canvas, wood panel and stick
60" h x 72" w
Earth Layers
Oil and metallic paint on canvas, wood panel and stick
58" h x 72" w
Education
1998 MFA California State University, Long Beach
1995 BFA California State University, Long Beach
Artist Statement
Global warming is the focus of my artmaking. This thundering, environmental catastrophe presents itself as many disparate subjects. My content extends into the ethical, social, technological and political aspects of the subject.*
I structure my work around creating strong marks which resemble the gnarled forms found in nature. To echo environmental disruptions, I physically separate the painting into various-sized pieces. These pieces support the "broken" concept, define the unstable status of the environment and super-glue the need for policy change onto the mind of the viewer. The multiple pieces are called polyptychs.**
The "broken" concept is further reinforced as a rupture in aesthetics, signified by the contrast of color choices: metallic and oil paints. Metallic paint represents the problem area and oil color expresses the substance of nature. Although my work commutes between reality and the representation of a story, these art pieces present an armature for "future-now" thought considerations.
*overpopulation, war, pollution, plant life mutations, nuclear storage sites and underground nuclear testing, ice melts at the polar caps, air quality, endangered forests, industrial wastes, overfishing, animal extinction, El Nino storms, forest burns, smog, etc.
**A polyptych is the offspring of the diptych (two) and the triptych (three). A polyptych means "many."
Bio
Hines-Jurgens graduated Magna Cum Laude from California State University, Long Beach. She was awarded the Sylvia Russell Award for Equality and Justice in Ecology and the Sharyn DiSanza Award for Equality and Justice through Artistic Expression. These honors are from Feast, Inc., a wommin without borders environmental group.
An exhibiting artist for fifteen years, she also serves the arts community as curator and juror—most recently for the national Global Warming: Artists Speak exhibition for the Orange County Center for Contemporary Arts.
She and her work are featured in two DVDs: Global Warming-Healing Hands and Stop Global Warming, directed by Steve Gooden of No Compromise Films. The films are documentary shorts derived from the artist's process and paintings in her eco-struggle.
Locally, her work is showcased in the book The Palos Verdes Peninsula Artists, by Stephen Smoke and Palos Verdes Style magazine, edited by Lili Miura, MS Publishing.
Regionally, she gives artist talks on global warming using her paintings and eco-art pieces from exhibitions she has curated. The presentations are made with regular slides and standard Macintosh Keynote or PC PowerPoint digital programs.
As an environmental speaker for adults and children, her global warming subjects include habitat stress, environmental destruction and the strain wars and overpopulation place on the planet.
Hines-Jurgens' work has been exhibited in solo and group shows regionally, nationally and internationally (Giorgio de Chirico Museum, Greece).
