Laurie Mansur was born in Los Angeles, California. From an early age she loved art and spent spare time drawing, painting, and taking photographs. In high school her focus widened to include writing poetry and personal journals. Laurie studied Art and Art History at UC Berkeley and CSU Stanislaus in order to incorporate writing and art by writing about art. Unable to see a clear career path in the art field, she went into the publishing industry where she would abandon art for the next 20 years.
A series of jobs took Laurie from San Francisco to Flagstaff, Arizona, and back to the Bay Area. In 2000, she joined a tiny project management firm founded by two female colleagues and today is part owner of that company. In the early 2000’s, art drew her back as a means of self-discovery and healing from post-partum depression. Community art classes, workshops and hours of exploring on her own uncovered a passion for color and form, and the feel and smell of oil paint. By 2007, she realized that she is a painter. She currently balances two occupations (and sides of her brain): painting and business management. In 2019 she began a deeper journey to realize more authenticity in her life. This has resulted in experimentation with art and poetry, more abstract work, and an attempt to create from a more intuitive place, while retaining the magic of color and light. Influences on her work and life include growing up in a small California farm town, travel and living in the American Southwest. Her earliest family vacations included travel through Native American reservations, where as a child she developed an appreciation of the culture, food, and Native art such as kachinas, jewelry pottery and weaving. Travel in Europe and the then Soviet Union in the 70’s and 80’s further formed her view that the US is not the center of the universe. 19th century artists, especially Rodin, Joaquin Sorrolla, the Impressionists and Post Impressionists, and the contemporary art of Wayne Thiebaud, Kevin MacPherson, Donna Zagotta, Peggi Kroll Roberts, Carol Marine and Kanna Aoki have been big influences. Outside of visual art, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Mary Oliver and Thoreau, her daughter and her therapist have probably inspired her the most. |