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Lauren Childes has recently moved from London to Miami to create her art in warm weather. An arts graduate, she has previously worked as a design consultant to a construction company, a model and a counselor.
Artist Statement
“Art for me is about beauty. The action of creating is often a beautiful experience for me, and I’m always drawn by the beauty in the subjects I paint – whether it’s of colour, line, feeling, or the subject itself.
I felt guilty for many years about my craving to see beauty, probably as a result of being brought up in a rather Fundamentalist Catholic manner. Then I realized that beauty is a spiritual value, just as love and truth are, and that being inspired by beauty is a valuable human experience. Everything that inspires us in an uplifting manner brings us closer to God.
Art has always reflected and provoked the evolution of human consciousness, and beauty in art has always been part of that growth.
Creating beauty can be a courageous, political, and even dangerous act. When you bring beauty, you bring light, and it is hard to face the light when one is accustomed to darkness.
Beauty, and the lack of it, can be used as a weapon. I look at how the American government punishes those in projects by providing ugly dwellings with tiny windows to keep out the light. In England those in council houses – the English equivalent of projects – are often punished with homes that suffer ugliness and a lack of light too.
When people look at my paintings I hope that they see light, remember beauty, and are inspired positively.
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