Laura Dalzell (she/her) is a San Francisco-based artist and arts educator.  Dalzell’s work follows a path through the psyche. Focusing on mostly fellow queer, and fellow recovering alcoholic and addict friends, she narrows in on their often bold-but-tender personalities. Each painting is a psychological collage. Separate spaces, painted in starkly different styles, represent the subject’s varied reactions to day-to-day life. Oftentimes, the same subject (foliage, or the sky, or the figure’s skin) will be painted in several styles throughout the piece. Smooth, cloudy moments represent the “mundane” nature of well-balanced mental health. Sensationalized–but ominous–moments of neon, or rich sparkly glints show moments of painfully bright excitement, and their fleeting nature. Stricter line work and gritty texture show reality biting in, the human experience for mentally ill folks: isolation, rumination, insecurities, sometimes doom and gloom. Overall, juxtapositions within each painting show her subject’s non-linear path to creating an inner world: brimming with coping mechanisms, conversations with spirituality, and the crawl toward personality and character development. Nuances and breaks show deviations from the path – necessary for growth.

CV

EDUCATION

2022 Single-Subject Teaching Credential in Visual Arts, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
2015 BFA in Studio Art, Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, CA