Biography
Laurie McClave has been drawing and painting obsessively since she was a young child. Growing up in California in the 60s and 70s her extended family was full of artists, free-thinking Mad magazine readers and a sprinkling of Catholic comedians. She dabbled in Drama, Clothing design and sculpture in the 70s and 80s before deciding to really get down and Paint….
She attended The San Francisco Art Institute where she earned an honors studio spot. While there she concentrated on figure drawing and painting and received her BFA in Painting in 1994.
After graduating and exhibiting work around the Bay area and across the country she relocated to the Pacific Northwest where she is painting and raising her own free-thinking family.
Her work is currently exhibited at Swoon gallery in LA, Tasty Boutique Gallery in Seattle and Red Raven Gallery , a cooperative she runs and curates in Port Townsend, Wa. Laurie mentors up and coming artists in the business and marketing end of the art world at her new art space, featuring those that would normally not be able to get a foot in the door at a conventional gallery. The Red Raven is run as a cooperative venture and she is able to give these new artists the tools needed to move forward with their work.
Laurie’s “Pantheon of Women” is a play on iconic representations of how feminine sexuality in art has been perceived throughout history. Her paintings are suffused with color, symbolism, and animal imagery, and her style leans toward symbolic realism and fantasy pinup with a tongue in cheek sexual edge.
“The subjects of Laurie’s paintings embrace their individuality and freely revel in their own sexuality. What strikes me the most about her paintings is the raw, tribal energy behind them.”
“I am working on the conundrum of ancient pagan cultural roots being at odds with more modern religion and culture and how it has shaped us in the western world. These ideas are fascinating to me and I am exploring how and why our western culture has evolved the way it has and why we keep making the same mistakes over and over. The women I paint are strong and connected to the earth. They are also sure of their sexuality offering no apologies and a take no prisoners attitude.”
