ABOUT
In addition to painting, I work as a gallery consultant for Momentum Gallery in downtown Asheville. I previously worked part time in the Fine Art Department at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, N.C. teaching 2-Dimensional Design, Painting, and Watercolor. My husband, Eric Harrison, is a sound engineer for the UFC and a fine woodworker. Sometimes we collaborate with projection mapping on my geometric acrylic paintings. We live and work out of our home studio in East Asheville, North Carolina.
Artist Statement:
My current Atmospheric series includes abstract, geometric paintings that are representative of the increasing temperatures over time in our region, and they also serve as emotional time markers in my life. The paintings are made slowly by masking off one wedge or band of color at a time on wood panels. Each layer has multiple flat coats of acrylic paint and takes several days to dry. They can take months to create, so their titles reflect the time that passes while they are being made. The slow and steady process shifts the color based on the temperature in my studio that is open and connected to the outdoors in East Asheville. The color transitions also depend on my emotional state or experiences happening in my life. My paintings use subtle gradients and pastel colors to illustrate feminine elegance in the typically male dominated field of hard-edge abstraction. There is an element of enlightenment or hope that I would like to share with this series.
My previous series The Highwayscapes featured degraded landscape paintings that are of a vanishing open road. This illusion of the never-ending road has been part of my childhood with divorced parents living in separate states. Part of these paintings include spray paint graffiti drips that appear like the sky is precipitating. All the details in the landscape have been reduced to bands of color. The very tight geometric landscape is broken by organic aerosol drips. These drips seemingly destroy the precision of the masked off shapes in the landscape. These paintings represent how we move through the landscape in cars, but also how this movement is causing increasingly intense storms and infrastructure collapse. I believe that we as humans take from the landscape by existing within it, but we as artists can bring attention to this, so that we can find more environmentally friendly ways to coexist with nature in the future. Although temperatures might be shifting warmer globally, there is still hope that we can reverse some of our effects.
Plein Air Watercolor Artist Statement/Bio:
Asheville artist Laura Sellers creates plein air landscapes and botanical watercolor illustrations. Immersing herself in the landscape of Western North Carolina, Sellers hikes and paints with her dog, Brody, and attempts to encapsulate the feeling and essence of the area. She works quickly to capture specific lighting, and often completes her watercolors in one sitting with a few additional touch ups at home in her studio. Some of her favorite subjects are river and creek beds, gnarly tree roots, and scenic vistas that overlook the city.
Exhibitions:
Orbit Space Tanger Outlet Mall Hurricane Relief collaborative exhibition in Asheville, NC, November 2024
Enchanted Canopy Collaborative exhibition at Momentum Gallery in Asheville, NC, July 2024
Nocturne Exhibtion Collaborative exhibition at Momentum Gallery in Asheville, NC, November, 2023
Warren Wilson College Faculty Biennial Exhibition Collaborative exhibition in Swannanoa, NC, October, 2023
LORE Collaborative all-female exhibition at Revolve Gallery in Asheville, NC, September, 2023
Small Works | Big Impact Collaborative exhibition at Momentum Gallery, November, 2022
Reviewing Black Mountain College featuring John Cage Speaker at UNCA Reuters Center in Asheville, NC, October 2021
Warren Wilson College Faculty Show Collaborative exhibition in Swannanoa, NC, in October, 2021
Revolve Things That Go Bump in the Night Collaborative Exhibition in the River Arts District Asheville, NC, October 2021
Western Carolina University Faculty Biennial Exhibition in Cullowhee, NC, January 2021
OBX ART TRUCK Bed Gallery Collaborative exhibition in the Outer-banks, NC, May 2019
Black Mountain College's re{Happening} #9 in Black Mountain, NC, March 2019
Western Carolina University Faculty Biennial Exhibition in Cullowhee, NC, January 2019
Taylor Gallery Collaborative exhibition in Asheville, NC, November 2018
Also Gallery Online Solo exhibition, November 2018
Cancer Mural Consortium, Collaborative mural at Mission Hospital in Asheville, NC, August, 2018
“Raw” Collaborative all-female exhibition at the Satellite Gallery in Asheville, NC May, 2018
“Blow Ins II” Collaborative WCU exhibition at 126 Gallery in Galway, Ireland, January, 2018
Paint Memphis 170-Artist Collaborative mural festival in Memphis, TN, September, 2017
Harvest Records Solo Exhibition in West Asheville, NC, July, 2017
“Debut” Collaborative exhibition at Push Gallery, downtown Asheville, NC, July, 2017
Cleveland County Arts Council Collaborative WCU MFA exhibition Shelby, NC July, 2017
Jackson County Arts Council Solo exhibition of Photography at the Sylva County Courthouse in Sylva, NC, January, 2017
“#AVLGLITCH” Exhibition International Collaborative exhibition at the Orange Space in the River Arts District Asheville, NC, July, 2016
Exhibition at the Collider in connection with the National Center for Environmental Education (NCEE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Asheville, NC in 2016 - Present
“Draw, We Draw, Draw What?” Collaborative WCU MFA exhibition at the Bascom Museum in Highlands, NC in January, 2016
“The Projected Landscape” Thesis Exhibition at WCU Fine Art Museum in Cullowhee, NC, October, 2015
“Whee Fresh” Collaborative WCU MFA exhibition with the Asheville Area Arts Council in the Grove Arcade in Asheville, NC, 2015
Asheville Regional Airport Collaborative exhibition in Arden, NC, March 2014
Bascom Museum Collaborative WCU MFA exhibition in Highlands, NC, January 2014
“WCU MFA BFA” Collaborative WCU MFA exhibition at the Tannery Studios in the River Arts District in Asheville, NC, May, 2014
Fatty Gallery Collaborative WCU MFA exhibition in Sylva, NC, May, 2014
Colburn Earth Science Museum Solo exhibition in Asheville, NC, 2012