Laura Strand_Artwork
Songs of PresenceStillness of WaterMaterial Alchemy : Textile to Stone to TextileSurface DesignHandwoven20082000-2008
My current search is for an alchemical relationship linking location and life.

My photographs of place taken from the air or land are the working base for most of these artworks. They are a point from which I attempt to recreate the wonder of experience in the world. I want to transform a moment into an enduring mental place of creativity – in essence a location in my life where nothing ends and everything remains a beginning.

The ice circles and the water drops have become such images that move from conception to composition and through process from camera to computer to weavings and silk screens, always carrying the sense of a quiet moment as an infinite space. As I work I try to reflect on the overwhelm of demanding daily life and to confront the passing of life into the unknown.

The current works built around the Mississippi River are focused on my amazement at the power and presence of water. Watershed Mississippi allows the river at its center to disappear and reappear, exhibiting our ability to diminish its power in the Midwest. Mississippi 2340 miles displays the full length of the river in gold leaf on the surface, offering the opposite point of view.