Laura Von Rosk
Laura Von Rosk earned her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, and her BFA from SUNY at Purchase. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally in both solo and group shows. Her awards include a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant (2023), a NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) Painting Fellowship (2004); an Individual Artist Support Grant from the Pollack-Krasner Foundation; and residencies at Jentel, Sheridan, WY; Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VA; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; Centrum, WA; Dorland Arts Colony, CA; NY Mills Cultural Center, MN; Acadia National Park, ME; Bernheim Foundation in Clermont, KY and in New York: Yaddo; Blue Mountain Center; Millay Colony; and the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts, Inc. She currently lives in Schroon Lake, NY, and recently retired from her position as Gallery Director for the Lake George Arts Project, in Lake George NY, after 23 years.
Artist Statement
My paintings stem from a love of miniaturization, illusion of space, observation of natural phenomena and appreciation of works from other artists I admire across cultures and time. I hope give visual form to physical forces, seasonal change and psychological states of mind through an expansive landscape in a small format. Forms are manipulated to create tension between the imagined and real world. They may start from a lingering feeling of a place, and serve as a way to reflect on places and memories, but as they develop, they may transform into something unexpected.
The recent “Sea Breeze Patio” series is based on my childhood home-backyard. Beyond the foreground space of arborvitae bushes there is only a vague resemblance to the actual place. Our family home sold after my father passed in 2023. It is a place I will never visit again – which may explain an urgency to reflect and paint “memories” – like an homage to my parents, as well as to a place I knew well.