0-laura@myway.com

Biography

After a career in interior design specialising in the upholstery of antique furniture, Laura studied Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Ulster. Since graduating in 1998 with a B.A. (Hons.), she has exhibited in the U.K. and Ireland. She held her first solo exhibition in Belfast in February 2003. Private collections and commissions include the Hilton Hotel, Belfast, Hotel One, Ballymena, Malone Lodge Hotel, Belfast and Elliott Duffy Garrett, Belfast. Other work is held in private collections in Ireland and Great Britain. Two pieces of her work were exhibited at the occasion of the opening of the Laganside Courthouse by H.M. The Queen.

In 2002, she received an Individual Artist’s Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Artist Statement

My work expresses an emotional reaction to my surroundings; in this case, to the changing architecture of Belfast.

The buildings are being transformed from traditional structures of red brick and slate to contemporary constructions of steel, glass and other materials. The changes have inspired me to capture and express them in the six slate and steel wall sculptures exhibited which tells the story of the changing architecture.

Belfast is a city of slate roofs. It was never a place of thatched cottages, but rather an industrial town where steel was a major feature. The mills were constructed of iron beams and fitted out with iron machinery. Steel is still used extensively in modern buildings but combined with other materials.

The Loopbridge Mill was used for spinning and weaving. An adjacent dam was fed by the Loop River and provided water for the mill.

This collograph print is a memory of the mill reflected in the dam.

Title: Mill Reflections

Medium: Collograph

Title: The Changing Face of East Belfast

Medium: Slate, Metal, Wood and Oils