Artist in the Spotlight: Laura Jones

Laura Jones is originally from the Elkhart/Richfield area and has been showcasing her work at Main ARTery for a little over 8 months.  Laura is no stranger to Southwest Kansas, as she has lived in the area her entire life.  Since 2012, she has called Hugoton, Kansas her home.  She has two children, Elizabeth and Kaelea with her husband of 12 years, Jeremie Jones.

Currently, Laura is displaying her graphite work prints and originals, along with a few of her watercolor works.  She loves to work in black and white, and is a predominately graphite artist.  Laura enjoys the versatility of graphite pencils and says she loves working with them.  She tends to work in realism, surrealism and does lots of portraitures, but is currently exploring the expressionism of hands.  Landscapes, pet portraits, still life drawings, and nature images are just a few other subject matters she has done. 

If you like her work, she does take commissions.  The commission work she takes always brings her new subjects and new challenges, causing her to work outside of her comfort zone.  However, Laura thrives here and loves to learn something new as it pertains to her art.  In her commission work, she looks for what is most important to the client and works to bring that forward.  Laura says there is always a story with the work she is commissioned to do, and people are trusting her with that story.  She says she is honored by their trust in her to care for their stories, and does her best to bring them to life outside of a photograph.

Some of her favorite artists include Cath Riley, Jan Van Eyck, Rembrandt, J.M.W. Turner, and Jono Dry, a South African artist whom she draws much inspiration from and is the reason she began exploring surrealistic hyper-realism.  Of course, she cannot forget the original spark to her love of art and the reason she continues to pursue it, Julie Caffee Cruz.  When asked what made her want to make art, Laura had this to say:

“There was never one specific thing that made me want to do art, it was more like I could never get enough of it. I have been drawing, painting, and creating for as long as I have had the ability to do so, and I am sure my math teachers didn’t appreciate all of my doodles on the sides of my lessons. However, I have had many instances that have kept me pursuing art. One of those instances was when Julie Caffee Cruz visited our elementary school and discussed her illustrations. I remember being completely rocked to my core. I was also fascinated by early animated movies. As a kid, I used to pause our VHS tapes and try to recreate the art. I also had a great art teacher throughout school which drove me to keep creating, learning, and improving.

When describing her aesthetic, she uses one word, “meaningful.”  While she is working on a piece, whether it is personal or commission she tries to find and emphasize the deepest meaning of the piece.  With her personal projects, she wants to make people stop and think about life in an unconventional way, by exploring how fragile and important life is.

Finally, Laura would like to say thank you to everyone who has helped her pursue art and to all those who take the time to see the value of art and artists.  “Art,” she says, “is a social medium, it takes the artist to create it, but there must be an audience to take it in.”  She believes people communicate through art, whether it is a book, song, photograph, painting, or drawing, and we should take the time to look at it to see what the artist is sharing with us.

Art shops like Main ARTery give artists a place to share their work and for viewers to experience the work as it was intended by the artist.   While we live in a digital world, art viewed through a screen tends to lose that special something.  She wants to encourage everyone to take the time to visit their local art shop and explore art in their surrounding towns and cities.