Love Frog: Laura Callin Bennett
Laura Callin Bennett is a visual artist who draws carefully detailed, delightfully imagined figures, which include abstract designs, animals and plants. She takes care to link her drawings together, creating what she calls “hybrids.” Each work is a hybrid of several other works, adding consistency to her art that is quickly recognizable. Color and design form a bridge between Laura’s individual pieces. Laura’s drawings are very precise and look almost as if they had been done on a computer; however, she prefers to draw with pen or pencil on paper.
One of those children who kept drawing after the others stopped, until recently Laura did not consider herself an artist, even after completing a college degree in art. Others saw the artist in Laura before she did; yet, as soon as she started answering “yes” to the question, “Are you an artist?” she realized how deep her commitment was.
Laura likens her artistic practice to that of meditation: daily devotion is the key. To produce her art, Laura draws every day, believing that hard work is just as important as talent. She estimates that she spends from twelve to twenty hours per week on art depending on other commitments. In addition to her art, Laura works full-time at a variety of jobs that vary from high tech to a local bookstore. She says she enjoys working in data analysis, pointing out that she knew people in college who had double majors of art and computer science.
Among her artistic influences, Laura counts Alphonse Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, William Morris, Margaret Kilgallen and Takashi Murakami. She also has an interest in the history of art education. As an assistant art teacher for school-aged children, Laura observed that, in general, young children are not interested in modern art, preferring to draw something they can recognize. In times past, art students were taught to carefully copy a work of art set before them, and so they learned to draw very well, even though they might have desired more freedom. Today’s children are shown modern art at first, and seem puzzled by it. Laura herself discovered the universality of children’s art when, as a child, she found the website Elfwood, where kids share their drawings. She was surprised to find that many other children had drawn the same mouse figures she had, and wonders what, exactly, influenced all of those kids to draw the same things.
In addition to drawing and working full-time, Laura started a T-shirt business two years ago. She sells her shirts on-line, and each features one of her whimsical designs. Laura recently sold her T-shirts at a local art show, which also featured her drawings.
The experience of sharing and showing art is revelatory, and Laura is ready to get her art out in front of more people. She’s had success selling small artworks at Kaleid’s Two Buck Tuesdays, and would like to meet other artists in order to share ideas for creating and selling. She is a charter member of Silicon Valley Artists Collaborative. As a final tip, Laura recommends the website artdeadline.com. You can view Laura’s art on line at www.lauracallinbennett.com.
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