Artist Laura Alexander

Tim Fulton 0:12Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, I sat down with visual artist Laura Alexander to talk about her background, her work, and we go behind the curtains a little bit on how the art world works. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. The Confluence Cast is sponsored this week by Art Makes Columbus, Columbus Makes Art, featuring stories about our city's incredible artists, stories full of inspiration, challenge, passion, and success. For videos, articles, an up-to-the-minute calendar of events, and an artist directory, visit columbusmakesart.com, the resource for all things arts and culture in the capital city. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with artist Laura Alexander. Laura, how are you?

Laura Alexander 1:29I'm good. How are you?

Tim Fulton 1:30Good. Full disclosure to everyone listening- ... uh, we've had this conversation before. I would like to note this is the first time I've ever lost an interview, but I lost it while Laura was sitting here. So it's all good. Laura, talk to us, uh, about your work.

Laura Alexander 1:48Um, so I hand-cut paper. Um, I j- I basically draw my work out first, cut it on the backside, and then I, um, flip it over, and then I cut multi layers. Um, sometimes I paint on the back so that it casts a color into the shadows.

Tim Fulton 2:04And so it ... what it ends up looking like is it's these layers of paper with incremental changes-

Laura Alexander 2:10Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 2:10... in the, um, I don't know if you'd say depth of the paper or depth of the opening-

Laura Alexander 2:15Yeah, mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 2:15... that you're creating.

Laura Alexander 2:16Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 2:17Uh, which create... It's a beautiful effect, and I... Most of the work that I've seen of yours is large scale work.

Laura Alexander 2:23Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 2:23Uh, and so it's, i- it's arresting, it's intricate. Uh, it's ... I enjoy it a lot. Talk about your background and sort of how you got here.

Laura Alexander 2:33Mm-hmm. So I grew up in Pataskala, Ohio. I went to, um, Fort Hayes for high school, um, for their fine arts program.

Tim Fulton 2:42Mm-hmm.

Laura Alexander 2:42Um, I also went to my regular high school. Um, and then I went, um, to Maryland Institute College of Art for pa- on a painting scholarship. Um, I had a sculpture teacher that was also a fiber professor, and so I pretty quickly, um, from getting there, decided I didn't wanna paint anymore. And I started, like, embroidering, weaving, um, making sculptures instead of paintings.

Tim Fulton 3:04Mm-hmm.

Laura Alexander 3:04Um, I did a lot of bead work for my, my thesis work. Um, and then I went to the University of Washington in Seattle. I took a year off before I went there.

Tim Fulton 3:14That was your graduate-

Laura Alexander 3:15Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 3:15... work?

Laura Alexander 3:16Yeah.

Tim Fulton 3:16Okay. And then what was that graduate degree in?

Laura Alexander 3:18Fibers.

Tim Fulton 3:19Got it. Got it.

Laura Alexander 3:20Yeah.

Tim Fulton 3:20And for those that don't know, the Fort Hayes program, I was actually there for-

Laura Alexander 3:24Mm

Tim Fulton 3:24... theater. It's a vocational program for, uh, like anything else, like auto shop. Uh, you go there half a day for junior and senior year to, um, train in a specific work. There's a theater program, instrumental music, vocal music, dance, uh, TV, radio, commercial art, fine art. What am I forgetting? Is that all of them?

Laura Alexander 3:49You, did you say music?

Tim Fulton 3:50Yeah.

Laura Alexander 3:50'Cause I think I did.

Tim Fulton 3:50There's the two musics. Oh, maybe dance if I didn't say it. But, uh, how did you discover... how did you learn about that program and, and decide to go there?

Laura Alexander 4:00Um, so my older sister is also an artist. She's a g- uh, she's a UX designer now, but she was in a graphic design program at the time.

Tim Fulton 4:07Okay.

Laura Alexander 4:07She mentored with one of the p- teachers there and-

Tim Fulton 4:09Okay

Laura Alexander 4:10... that's how she found out about the program, and then I was kind of ... I wasn't sure if I wanted to be an artist or a doctor, so my parents actually pushed me down the art w- the art way.

Tim Fulton 4:19Okay.

Laura Alexander 4:20And so, um, c- because they're both very creative people. Um, and s- that's how I found out about the program, and it was a really ... I mean, we ... You learn how to weld there. We had pizza there.

Tim Fulton 4:30Yeah.

Laura Alexander 4:30We went on field trips every Friday. It was, like, a really great exposure to the arts.

Tim Fulton 4:34So I'm not... I'm familiar with how CCAD does it-

Laura Alexander 4:38Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 4:38... in terms of you do survey work when you first come in, and so you're doing all different mediums of work.

Laura Alexander 4:44Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 4:45Uh, is Maryland Institute College of Art similar in that?

Laura Alexander 4:48Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Most art schools have a f- like a, they call it foundations.

Tim Fulton 4:52Okay.

Laura Alexander 4:52Um, so at MICA we had like, we had color, we had, um, color classes. We had, like, theory classes.

Tim Fulton 4:59Okay.

Laura Alexander 4:59We had, you know, intro to drawing, intro to painting. Um-

Tim Fulton 5:03And I imagine a little bit of art history, too, right?

Laura Alexander 5:05Yeah.

Tim Fulton 5:05Okay.

Laura Alexander 5:05Yeah. And we, and we also had to take, like, a science class and-

Tim Fulton 5:09Well, good

Laura Alexander 5:10... and the humanities-

Tim Fulton 5:11Good

Laura Alexander 5:11... and stuff. Yeah, so.

Tim Fulton 5:12Yeah. Well, and we were ... Uh, I'll link to it in the show notes the interview, but Charlotte Belland was talking o- we ended up talking a little bit about how those additional classes that aren't necessarily art-

Laura Alexander 5:23Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 5:23... inform- can end up actually informing your art.

Laura Alexander 5:26Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 5:27So-

Laura Alexander 5:27Absolutely

Tim Fulton 5:27... did you feel like, and I guess I'm trying to make this a little, uh, uh, endorsement for Fort Hayes, did you feel like you had a leg up on the other students because you had sort of experienced what you refer to as foundations?

Laura Alexander 5:43Yeah. Yeah. And I, I did actually, um, get advanced placement in some classes, so I didn't have to-

Tim Fulton 5:47Okay

Laura Alexander 5:47... take some of those foundational classes.

Tim Fulton 5:49Okay.

Laura Alexander 5:49Um, and then, but it, it was actually, it was a kind of a, it was a, a great thing that I was ahead, but that was also a bad thing because I was used to working independently.

Tim Fulton 5:59Okay.

Laura Alexander 5:59And you get into school, and you have assignments. Like, they would give us assignments at Fort Hayes, and we'd laugh at them, and we'd just do what we want.

Tim Fulton 6:04Oh.

Laura Alexander 6:07But I was lucky that I had a professor for one of my foundations classes who was like, "You can break the rules as long as it's good."

Tim Fulton 6:14Okay.

Laura Alexander 6:14So if I didn't wanna do the homework, as long as I brought in something good, he would-

Tim Fulton 6:17There you go

Laura Alexander 6:18... he would let, he would, he would let me get, you know, around that. But, um, it was, it was difficult my first year, and then I kinda got into the groove, and it was pretty fun.

Tim Fulton 6:25Got it. And so you, so correct me if I'm wrong, it's almost like they're giving you studio time-

Laura Alexander 6:31Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 6:32... is what you're getting at Fort Hayes, with some guidance-

Laura Alexander 6:34Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 6:34... a little bit. But again, you ended up laughing at the assignments. So, um, and then talk to me about how you discovered the, the work that you're doing now, the paperwork.

Laura Alexander 6:46Um, so when I was in grad school, I was drawing with my sewing machine on this transparent fabric and layering those.

Tim Fulton 6:53Okay.

Laura Alexander 6:53Um, so it was, the drawings would, you know-

Tim Fulton 6:55Come through

Laura Alexander 6:56... come through. And, um, I, I, and my, my roommate from college came to visit me from undergrad, and she was like, "Oh, you should try etching glass," 'cause she had etched some glasses, like just mugs for her house.

Tim Fulton 7:09Okay.

Laura Alexander 7:09And she was like, "It's kind of a cool process," you know? So I was like, "Oh, I'll go check it out." So then I started etching, um, drawings into glass and layering those, and then I, w- after I moved back here, I, I hit the brakes, um, in my car coming from Mount Vernon moving artwork, and I broke a couple pieces. I think-

Tim Fulton 7:26Okay

Laura Alexander 7:26... it was like three or four pieces.

Tim Fulton 7:28Okay.

Laura Alexander 7:29And so I went back to my studio and, um, just kind of defeated and a- actually, this piece stayed in the back of my car for a while.

Tim Fulton 7:37I'm not messing with those.

Laura Alexander 7:39I didn't even wanna know.

Tim Fulton 7:40Right.

Laura Alexander 7:41I, uh, I had a big roll of paper, so I just unrolled the paper and was like, "I'm just gonna draw from now on 'cause drawings don't break." And then I started cutting my drawings and getting very similar results.

Tim Fulton 7:50Okay. So it was almost a decision sort of out of necessity- ... but, uh, but you were getting the same results.

Laura Alexander 7:58Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 7:58Uh, and they are arresting pieces. I encourage anybody to take a look at them. What sort of... They're super pattern-oriented-

Laura Alexander 8:06Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 8:06... and intricate. What, um, inspires that?

Laura Alexander 8:10So a lot of that comes from travel. Um, I, I go around, um, wherever I'm at and just collect patterns. Um-

Tim Fulton 8:17Okay

Laura Alexander 8:18... like I was just in Cuba, and they have r- these, like, very exquisite floor tiles.

Tim Fulton 8:21Mm-hmm.

Laura Alexander 8:21So I'm kind of doing a b- a series now based on those floor tiles and, and even just the grates that on their, like blocking their windows and their doors.

Tim Fulton 8:29Oh, okay.

Laura Alexander 8:30Um, so they had some really lovely patterns I picked up there, and I just kind of take those, translate them into paper. Um-

Tim Fulton 8:35Okay

Laura Alexander 8:36... paint, paint how I wanna paint them. So a lot of times the palettes come, also come from the, from where I'm at-

Tim Fulton 8:41Mm-hmm

Laura Alexander 8:41... um, what I'm seeing.

Tim Fulton 8:42And you are represented by two galleries.

Laura Alexander 8:45Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 8:45Uh, what's the one in San Francisco?

Laura Alexander 8:47Simon Breitbard Fine Arts.

Tim Fulton 8:49Okay. And then the Hammond Harkins Gallery here in Columbus.

Laura Alexander 8:52Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 8:53Can you talk about what, uh, sort of that process is like working with a gallery and how those... This is literally, I think, for those sort of, people like to hear how, how does this happen?

Laura Alexander 9:06Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 9:06Like, what i- what-

Laura Alexander 9:07Mm

Tim Fulton 9:07... how does this work? What's the arrangement there? Obviously they're taking a, a cut.

Laura Alexander 9:11Right.

Tim Fulton 9:12Uh, but- ... what, like any a- 'cause they're an agent, basically-

Laura Alexander 9:16Yeah

Tim Fulton 9:16... right?

Laura Alexander 9:16Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 9:17Uh, that happens to have a physical space where they-

Laura Alexander 9:19Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 9:19... can show your work. But that's not, not always even does your work go into their physical space, right?

Laura Alexander 9:26Right, right. Um, so, like, with Simon Breitbard, um, 'cause they're in San Francisco, um, they mostly work with designers and corporations, so a lot of the times it's commission work, which it just basically goes from my table-

Tim Fulton 9:39Okay

Laura Alexander 9:39... to a framer to their wall.

Tim Fulton 9:41Okay.

Laura Alexander 9:41Right? But they do have two physical galleries. Um, but the, those works, it's usually just a, a mix of everybody's work, so they can bring those, those clients in, show them the work, and-

Tim Fulton 9:51Okay

Laura Alexander 9:51... and they give you a good taste of everybody.

Tim Fulton 9:52So they don't really do... Yeah, and this is just sort of the nature of the gallery.

Laura Alexander 9:55Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 9:55They don't really do shows.

Laura Alexander 9:57Mm-mm.

Tim Fulton 9:57They just have basically, for lack of a better term, a showroom.

Laura Alexander 10:01Right, right.

Tim Fulton 10:01Yeah.

Laura Alexander 10:02Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 10:02Okay.

Laura Alexander 10:02Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 10:03And then d- have you done art fairs at all?

Laura Alexander 10:06Um, I did, I did, like, some indie craft fairs a long time ago-

Tim Fulton 10:09Okay

Laura Alexander 10:09... but that was, like, doing, like, stencil work and stuff instead of-

Tim Fulton 10:11But not, like, proper-

Laura Alexander 10:13Yeah, yeah. Not like-

Tim Fulton 10:13Like-

Laura Alexander 10:13Yeah

Tim Fulton 10:13... you're not going to Art Basel or anything like that.

Laura Alexander 10:16Oh, yeah. The, I've had galleries bring my work to art fairs.

Tim Fulton 10:19That's what I mean.

Laura Alexander 10:20Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 10:21Yeah. And is that, um, is there anything different there or... I, I guess I'm not-

Laura Alexander 10:27Um

Tim Fulton 10:27... super familiar with how that process works either.

Laura Alexander 10:30I personally haven't been to a lot of them. So in, in California, they brought them to a couple, you know, to a couple of different fairs. I did go out to New York. I was showing at the gallery in New York City for a little while, and they had my work, um, in, like, an art on paper show-

Tim Fulton 10:45Okay

Laura Alexander 10:45... like, or one of those, like, whatever, art fairs.

Tim Fulton 10:48Yeah.

Laura Alexander 10:49Um, and then I went and saw it at a different fair that, a couple weeks later. Um, the cool thing there was I s- I hung next to the Frank Stella, which was, like, a really big deal for me.

Tim Fulton 10:58Oh, there you go.

Laura Alexander 10:58Like, one of my heroes, so.

Tim Fulton 10:59There you go. That's awesome. Um, and so with the gallery here in Columbus, then, how does that, what do you do for them?

Laura Alexander 11:09Um, so the work here in H- in Columbus is m- mu- I would say much more, um, focusing on, on the actual gallery show.

Tim Fulton 11:18Okay.

Laura Alexander 11:19Yeah.

Tim Fulton 11:19Got it. Got it.

Laura Alexander 11:20I mean, I, I do do commission work, but I don't do nearly as much of it here as I do-

Tim Fulton 11:25Okay

Laura Alexander 11:25... for outside of here.

Tim Fulton 11:26And then you still have a full-time job, too-

Laura Alexander 11:29Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 11:29... that you're doing.

Laura Alexander 11:30Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 11:30Um, where do you, so with the full-time job, with the life, y- you know, your life, how do, how do you, do you block out time for your work?

Laura Alexander 11:39Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 11:40How, how do you-

Laura Alexander 11:40I try to-

Tim Fulton 11:40... how do you make time for it?

Laura Alexander 11:41Yeah, I mean, so I try to block out work, but, um, it's, it's hard because it's like, you know, you got family stuff, you got-

Tim Fulton 11:48Mm-hmm

Laura Alexander 11:48... you know, I have a dog, I got, you know, friends.

Tim Fulton 11:51Right.

Laura Alexander 11:51Friends come last, but, you know. I'm just kidding.

Tim Fulton 11:54Tell, tell them that.

Laura Alexander 11:56But it's just the mat- for, like, my studio is in my home.

Tim Fulton 11:58Okay.

Laura Alexander 11:58And I didn't think I would like that. Um, I was, I was at Junction View Studios for years. Um-

Tim Fulton 12:03Okay

Laura Alexander 12:04... and then obviously that ... came d- came down-

Tim Fulton 12:06Mm

Laura Alexander 12:07... and Graveyard is there. And, um, it was kind of a turning point for me where I was like, "Do I buy a house?" I didn't really think I could afford a house, but-

Tim Fulton 12:13Okay

Laura Alexander 12:14... um, if I was gonna buy a house, I was gonna have to work in my house -

Tim Fulton 12:18You were like-

Laura Alexander 12:18... to, like, afford both.

Tim Fulton 12:19"I can't, I'm not gonna pay for a studio anymore."

Laura Alexander 12:22Yeah, but it's been really good because I can run down and do, like put a coat of paint on something and then go back upstairs, or-

Tim Fulton 12:28Oh, I see

Laura Alexander 12:28... cut-

Tim Fulton 12:28Okay, yeah.

Laura Alexander 12:29Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 12:29So you don't-

Laura Alexander 12:30I d- I just put a doggy door into my studio so my dog can go let herself out, so.

Tim Fulton 12:33Oh, good. Life hack-

Laura Alexander 12:37Yeah, yeah

Tim Fulton 12:38... by Nora Alexander.

Laura Alexander 12:38'Cause you don't realize how much the time that stuff takes, 'cause you do-

Tim Fulton 12:41Oh, absolutely

Laura Alexander 12:41... you'll let her out, and then an hour later I'm like, "Why am I still upstairs?"

Tim Fulton 12:45Yeah. You get... it's just, that's the problem with working at home, right?

Laura Alexander 12:48Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 12:49Is things get a little bit distracting.

Laura Alexander 12:51Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 12:51So are you like, uh, d- turn on music? Is there a TV on?

Laura Alexander 12:55Yeah.

Tim Fulton 12:55What do you-

Laura Alexander 12:55It depends on where I'm at in the work.

Tim Fulton 12:57Okay.

Laura Alexander 12:57So sometimes I listen to audiobooks, podcasts.

Tim Fulton 12:59Yeah.

Laura Alexander 13:00Like Tim Fulton's.

Tim Fulton 13:01Oh, thank you. Uh, but 'cause it is super, uh, I imagine it's- it's very meticulous work-

Laura Alexander 13:08Yeah, yeah

Tim Fulton 13:08... and it's, I imagine pretty repetitive.

Laura Alexander 13:10Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 13:11And so in the, let's call it the execution phase-

Laura Alexander 13:14Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 13:14... you've already drawn it. You've probably already gotten through, uh, one layer of it.

Laura Alexander 13:20Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 13:20Then it's just like, "Okay, I gotta power through this and do it."

Laura Alexander 13:22Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 13:23Okay.

Laura Alexander 13:23So I listen to a lot of TV or movies. Um-

Tim Fulton 13:26Yeah

Laura Alexander 13:26... like I said, podcasts, audiobooks, music.

Tim Fulton 13:29Yeah.

Laura Alexander 13:30Music's mostly for when I'm drawing-

Tim Fulton 13:32Okay

Laura Alexander 13:32... um, or painting. Um, and then the other stuff I'll, yeah, kinda, kinda, it's kinda nice to have, like, someone else in the studio with me.

Tim Fulton 13:38Yeah.

Laura Alexander 13:38Like, just talking to me.

Tim Fulton 13:39Just talk to me. I just need to... The, the, I'm doing mindless work.

Laura Alexander 13:44Yeah.

Tim Fulton 13:44Give me someone to talk to. Uh, and so what, so yeah, talk about that process a little bit actually.

Laura Alexander 13:52Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 13:52You, you get, you know you need to do a piece.

Laura Alexander 13:55Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 13:56Uh, you know roughly how big it's gonna be.

Laura Alexander 13:58Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 13:58And so do you sketch it out?

Laura Alexander 14:01Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 14:01Do you start with, like, one single shape?

Laura Alexander 14:04I'm, I'm a little aggressive, I think, with my work where-

Tim Fulton 14:07Okay

Laura Alexander 14:07... I don't like sketching things, so I'll do it if I have a commission. Like, I'll be like, "Oh, here's a sketch" of like-

Tim Fulton 14:13Okay

Laura Alexander 14:13... but when it comes to, like, making things that I just wanna make, um-

Tim Fulton 14:16Yeah

Laura Alexander 14:17... I just, like, lay the paper out and just start-

Tim Fulton 14:19Really?

Laura Alexander 14:19... drawing at it.

Tim Fulton 14:20And you just start, m- uh, w- I mean, you s-

Laura Alexander 14:23For better or worse.

Tim Fulton 14:24You start with the sketch, right?

Laura Alexander 14:26Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 14:27And you've got, like-

Laura Alexander 14:28Yeah

Tim Fulton 14:28... a ruler down, so you're creating, uh-

Laura Alexander 14:30If, if, yeah, if it's hard cuts, yeah.

Tim Fulton 14:32Got it.

Laura Alexander 14:32Like, I'll dra- I'll draw, I, a compass, whatever I need to get those geometric shapes in there right.

Tim Fulton 14:38Yeah.

Laura Alexander 14:38And then, um, once I'm happy with that, I start cutting.

Tim Fulton 14:41Okay. And then, so you're starting with that base. Do you s- m- I don't know why I think this is a weird question. Do you start with the top piece of paper or the bottom piece of paper?

Laura Alexander 14:51The top.

Tim Fulton 14:51Always?

Laura Alexander 14:52Yeah, always.

Tim Fulton 14:52And so always, then do you, 'cause the top has the larger holes.

Laura Alexander 14:58Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 14:59And so then do you just put the, 'cause you cut from the back, I imagine, right?

Laura Alexander 15:04Yeah. Right.

Tim Fulton 15:05Okay.

Laura Alexander 15:05Right. So everything, I work on the reverse on every layer.

Tim Fulton 15:08Mm-hmm.

Laura Alexander 15:08So, um, I'll cut that first layer, and then depending on the piece, I mean, sometimes there is a different pattern behind it, but a lot of times it's the same pattern-

Tim Fulton 15:16Yeah

Laura Alexander 15:16... just a, a smaller cut, right? Or a smaller hole.

Tim Fulton 15:19So you just literally just lay the next piece-

Laura Alexander 15:21So I'll just lay the, like, lay it on as a stencil-

Tim Fulton 15:22Okay

Laura Alexander 15:22... yeah, and cut through it.

Tim Fulton 15:24Okay. And you're-

Laura Alexander 15:24'Cause it saves me time, otherwise I'd have to draw the whole thing out again.

Tim Fulton 15:27Right. Well, and so are you just saying-

Laura Alexander 15:28And you want it to match up, so.

Tim Fulton 15:30So are you just sort of literally, you just lay it on top and you're like-

Laura Alexander 15:34Mm

Tim Fulton 15:34... "Okay, this one's gonna be just slightly smaller than the last one."

Laura Alexander 15:36Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 15:37Okay.

Laura Alexander 15:37Yeah.

Tim Fulton 15:38And do you, I don't know why I'm-

Laura Alexander 15:39It's just all by eyeball. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 15:41And do you have, 'cause obviously you've got hundreds if not thousands of hours, it's gotta be thousands of hours actually now that I think about it.

Laura Alexander 15:50Totally. Yeah, yeah, easily.

Tim Fulton 15:50Uh, e- what's the amount of difference in terms of space for each layer? Like, how many layers are in-

Laura Alexander 16:00It depends on, yeah, it depends on the piece. Like, some pieces, like, are three layers, but they look like they're a lot more.

Tim Fulton 16:06Okay.

Laura Alexander 16:07Some pieces are 20 layers. Yeah, it just depends. 'Cause especially when I do ones that have, like, multiple layers just butted up against each other-

Tim Fulton 16:14Yeah

Laura Alexander 16:14... and then I, and then also I'll additionally have ones that aren't. Like-

Tim Fulton 16:17Okay

Laura Alexander 16:17... that's like a puzzle I have to put together basically.

Tim Fulton 16:20A little spacing between.

Laura Alexander 16:20Yeah.

Tim Fulton 16:21Okay.

Laura Alexander 16:21So, um, there can easily be 20 or more layers in those pieces.

Tim Fulton 16:26But not significantly more than that ever, right?

Laura Alexander 16:29I don't, I, I would say no.

Tim Fulton 16:31Okay.

Laura Alexander 16:31Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 16:32And is it-

Laura Alexander 16:32'Cause you can only, I mean, I'd have to cut really big to get more than that.

Tim Fulton 16:35Right. Well, and you're not, um, uh, I'm not gonna explain this term. You're not bev- you're not bevel cutting ever, right?

Laura Alexander 16:42Yeah, no.

Tim Fulton 16:42Like, you're literally just straight down cutting-

Laura Alexander 16:44Yeah, yeah

Tim Fulton 16:44... with an X-Acto knife.

Laura Alexander 16:45Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 16:45Okay. And you're doing that by hand?

Laura Alexander 16:47Mm-hmm, yeah.

Tim Fulton 16:48No aid of ruler, straight edge?

Laura Alexander 16:51No, no.

Tim Fulton 16:52You have the drawing that you've already done.

Laura Alexander 16:53Yeah, I mean, I dr- yeah, the first drawing, and I, and that's not even, like, drawn to, I just, like, I'll have a, a pencil line-

Tim Fulton 17:00Mm-hmm

Laura Alexander 17:01... and I make two cuts for that pencil line. You know what I'm saying? Like-

Tim Fulton 17:04Okay

Laura Alexander 17:04... if that makes sense.

Tim Fulton 17:05Yes, I think so. Huh. Um, talk about, what does that say? We talked about representation. Um, talk a little bit about, like, what's the, what's the hardest part for you, we talked about finding time-

Laura Alexander 17:23Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 17:24... but in addition to that, like, what, uh, what do you struggle with as an artist?

Laura Alexander 17:29Um, I think, uh, like, my struggles may be different than some other people's struggles. I mean, I, I think we all have, I mean, they're equal struggles-

Tim Fulton 17:35Everybody's got their stuff

Laura Alexander 17:36... they're just different, right?

Tim Fulton 17:36Right.

Laura Alexander 17:36So it might be that you have a family or, like, I don't have kids, but I have, um, a pretty rigorous day job, so.

Tim Fulton 17:43Okay.

Laura Alexander 17:44Um, I'm on the VP track, so it's like-

Tim Fulton 17:46Oh

Laura Alexander 17:47... I'm-

Tim Fulton 17:47That's good

Laura Alexander 17:48... gonna work for corporate America, so it's not, like, a matter of, like-

Tim Fulton 17:51Can you say where you work?

Laura Alexander 17:52I would just say a financial institution.

Tim Fulton 17:54Got it.

Laura Alexander 17:54That way you can figure it out your, for your own.

Tim Fulton 17:56Okay.

Laura Alexander 17:58But, uh, so I, I mean, I have a pretty- Big day and sometimes I come home and I can't even physically-

Tim Fulton 18:05Yeah

Laura Alexander 18:05... think about making artwork, but, and then, and then I also feel like that puts me at a disadvantage though too, because I have to stop all the time and go do this other thing and then, you know-

Tim Fulton 18:14Okay

Laura Alexander 18:15... come back in and sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's a bad thing. Like-

Tim Fulton 18:17Yeah

Laura Alexander 18:18... there's times I'm, I'm like, "Oh, if I had more time, I, I feel like I'd progress faster," but then I think maybe I'd take more risks because I'm not in the studio as much. Like, I don't know, it's weird. It's like -

Tim Fulton 18:28But you do take more risks-

Laura Alexander 18:29Yes

Tim Fulton 18:29... because you're not in the studio as much?

Laura Alexander 18:30Yeah, because I feel like I have to catch up.

Tim Fulton 18:33Oh, 'cause you're rushing.

Laura Alexander 18:34Yeah.

Tim Fulton 18:34And if you had more time-

Laura Alexander 18:35Yeah, yeah

Tim Fulton 18:36... okay.

Laura Alexander 18:36Like, 'cause I feel like I, I, I read something recently that was like, said that procrastination is fear and I feel like sometimes we go to our studios and we just procrastinate.

Tim Fulton 18:45Yeah.

Laura Alexander 18:45Right? Like-

Tim Fulton 18:46If you've, like I've got all day-

Laura Alexander 18:48I don't, you know?

Tim Fulton 18:48... to do this two hours.

Laura Alexander 18:49Yeah. Yeah. But if you have two hours to do what, you know, all the work you can do for that-

Tim Fulton 18:55Yeah

Laura Alexander 18:55... day or whatever, then you're gonna take a, make, make, maybe make decisions a little faster.

Tim Fulton 18:59Yeah.

Laura Alexander 18:59Just like you do when you're under a deadline, right?

Tim Fulton 19:01Absolutely.

Laura Alexander 19:02So like, I mean, on the, I'm always working right up to the day the fair comes.

Tim Fulton 19:05So you feel, you do, you work well under pressure.

Laura Alexander 19:07Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fulton 19:08Okay. That's fair. That's fair. Um, talk about some of the things that you would encourage folks to check out in Columbus or the things that you think Columbus is doing well.

Laura Alexander 19:19Mm-hmm. Um, I, I mean, I think, like, the GCAC is amazing. Like, they, I think they have transformed completely since I moved here. Like-

Tim Fulton 19:27Okay

Laura Alexander 19:28... I, I didn't really know much about them when I moved here, but-

Tim Fulton 19:30Mm-hmm

Laura Alexander 19:31... I know that they did a lot of work with the community. I can, I remember them coming into Junction View asking us a lot of questions and-

Tim Fulton 19:36Yeah

Laura Alexander 19:37... and I think that they've done so much to, to raise local art-

Tim Fulton 19:41Yeah

Laura Alexander 19:42... up and to make it so it's something that, there's something to do every weekend, right?

Tim Fulton 19:46Yeah.

Laura Alexander 19:46And multiple things to do every weekend now. Um, I mean, I moved, I moved back to Columbus thinking I would, like, I'd be out of here in six months.

Tim Fulton 19:54That you wouldn't be here for long.

Laura Alexander 19:55Yeah.

Tim Fulton 19:55Okay.

Laura Alexander 19:55Yeah, like, I, like I joke s- to this day, like I started my job s- like f- almost 15 years ago. I was like-

Tim Fulton 20:02Okay

Laura Alexander 20:02... "I'll be here for six months." It's 15 years later. So.

Tim Fulton 20:04And here we are.

Laura Alexander 20:06Because Columbus has a great art scene. Um-

Tim Fulton 20:08Yeah

Laura Alexander 20:08... Junction View was amazing. It was like lightning in a bottle-

Tim Fulton 20:11Yeah

Laura Alexander 20:11... for me at the time, and um, I think Franklinton has all that going for it now.

Tim Fulton 20:16Mm-hmm.

Laura Alexander 20:16And I'm too old to have the energy to do all of it all the time, but-

Tim Fulton 20:21Right

Laura Alexander 20:21... but like, you know, I just went to Urban Scrawl. It was amazing.

Tim Fulton 20:25Mm-hmm.

Laura Alexander 20:25Um, like always. Um, you got the arts festivals.

Tim Fulton 20:30Yeah.

Laura Alexander 20:30You know? Um-

Tim Fulton 20:32Are there things that you would like to see Columbus do better or the ho- basically like holes that you see that should be filled?

Laura Alexander 20:40I don't know. I c- I can't really think of any holes 'cause we have the Wexner, we had the p-

Tim Fulton 20:44Mm-hmm.

Laura Alexander 20:44And then like I felt like for a l- you know, we just had the museum for a while, then it was, the Wexner came in and that was pretty amazing.

Tim Fulton 20:49Yeah.

Laura Alexander 20:50I think the Pizzuti's amazing. It's great that it's part of the museum now.

Tim Fulton 20:53Yeah.

Laura Alexander 20:54That's totally a different kind of artwork than you would go to the CMA to see. Um, so I think that's pretty awesome. I don't know. There's lots of opportunities for artists. There's artist grants. There's, um, professional grants. Like I, I got a professional grant to go to Cuba, so that was-

Tim Fulton 21:09Mm-hmm

Laura Alexander 21:09... amazing. So it's-

Tim Fulton 21:10Yeah

Laura Alexander 21:11... it gives you the opportunity to make your own opportunities too. Like-

Tim Fulton 21:13Yeah

Laura Alexander 21:14... you can choose somewhere you wanna go or some class you wanna take and apply for a grant.

Tim Fulton 21:19And did you, you, uh, your galler- you got representation from the galleries. They sort of found you-

Laura Alexander 21:26Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 21:26... right?

Laura Alexander 21:26Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 21:27How, but you were pursuing grants and stuff like that.

Laura Alexander 21:31Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 21:31What, was it sort of, was it art school that sort of armed you with knowing, like here's what you gotta do to be a working artist?

Laura Alexander 21:39Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, th- they, they, they taught us in gra- in grad school how to fill out like a grant-

Tim Fulton 21:46Okay

Laura Alexander 21:47... and that sort of thing. Um, and then you just-

Tim Fulton 21:48You gotta go to grad school for that? You, you-

Laura Alexander 21:49No, you don't.

Tim Fulton 21:51Okay.

Laura Alexander 21:51But, but I'm just saying that was something-

Tim Fulton 21:52Well-

Laura Alexander 21:52... that we learned there.

Tim Fulton 21:53I guess what I'm asking is they don't teach you that in undergrad, right?

Laura Alexander 21:56Um, they m- they may now.

Tim Fulton 21:58Because in order to-

Laura Alexander 21:59I don't really feel like they did when I was there.

Tim Fulton 22:01I think for people who don't know, so I used to work at the Wexner Center.

Laura Alexander 22:05Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 22:05Um, and I had no concept of what sort of, that in order to be not a, quote-unquote, "working artist," but like a represented artist-

Laura Alexander 22:19Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 22:19... there was a certain amount of academic cachet-

Laura Alexander 22:24Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 22:24... that you had to have in order to be shown in like a fine arts institution.

Laura Alexander 22:29Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 22:30And it wasn't, it wasn't necessarily based on the quality of work.

Laura Alexander 22:33Right. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 22:34It's much more based on, um-

Laura Alexander 22:37Where you went to school and who you

Tim Fulton 22:38... where, yeah, where, well, it's like anything else, where you went to school, who you knew, and sort of where you fit into the zeitgeist-

Laura Alexander 22:45Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 22:46... of like, oh, this person is influenced by this and was mentored by them.

Laura Alexander 22:50Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 22:51So you had to go, you have to go to grad school to sort of like-

Laura Alexander 22:55I, yeah, I just, it's funny 'cause like, uh, you know, a number of my friends went to grad school that I went to undergrad with and when we-

Tim Fulton 23:01Yeah

Laura Alexander 23:01... when we get together we're just like, it's like a hor- it's a horrible situa- like grad school sucks. I'm gonna, I'll say it.

Tim Fulton 23:06Okay.

Laura Alexander 23:07'Cause no one wants to go to grad school.

Tim Fulton 23:09Okay.

Laura Alexander 23:09It just like makes you question everything, right? But it's like you have to have that degree to like, for that reason.

Tim Fulton 23:16Yeah.

Laura Alexander 23:16Like if you go to a gallery and you have a, I mean, I'm not saying you have to have it, but it gives you a certain amount of footing.

Tim Fulton 23:22Yeah. Well, and you, I mean, you get to put it on your CV and like-

Laura Alexander 23:27Yeah. Yeah

Tim Fulton 23:27... I think that the galleries that represent you do so be- partly because-

Laura Alexander 23:32Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 23:32... you have this, um-

Laura Alexander 23:35Possibly

Tim Fulton 23:35... yeah, 'cause you have that degree. What, i- is art grad school like similar to getting like an academic doctorate in that like a whole-

Laura Alexander 23:44Yeah, as high, as high as you can go is master's degree, so.

Tim Fulton 23:46Okay. Well, I guess what I mean is-

Laura Alexander 23:48You can teach

Tim Fulton 23:48... is it's about, one, yeah, you can teach, that, but also that you are spending a whole lot of your time-

Laura Alexander 23:57Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 23:57... simply putting together your body of work-

Laura Alexander 24:00Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 24:00... and proving it out.

Laura Alexander 24:01Right. Right.

Tim Fulton 24:01It's not about going to classes at that point.

Laura Alexander 24:03Right. Right. Right.

Tim Fulton 24:03It's about studying under someone-

Laura Alexander 24:05Yeah. Yeah

Tim Fulton 24:05... and, okay.

Laura Alexander 24:06Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 24:07And real- that, see, I didn't know that.

Laura Alexander 24:11Yeah. It's a, it's mostly independent work and then you have a thesis that you have to defend.

Tim Fulton 24:15And you get to pay for it too.

Laura Alexander 24:16Mm-hmm. Right, and I still am.

Tim Fulton 24:19Cool. Well, Laura, thank you so much for your time.

Laura Alexander 24:22You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

Tim Fulton 24:34Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite artist. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.