Lauren Marx
I’ve decided I’ve really enjoyed including artist statements in posts. I am by no means a trained art critic…just a voracious observer…and at times the artist’s own words really enhance the experience of viewing the work. I’m going to try to include more direct quotes.
Now let’s have a look at Lauren Marx’s creations.
In her own words:
Cosmology, biology and anatomy have always been intriguing to me. My attraction to these topics have compelled me to find a way to create images that combine elements from these dissimilar fields to shape a universe that reflects my unique understanding of the cosmos.
I have developed a symbolic cosmology where animals represent nebulae, birds are the stars formed within the nebulae, and insects are the elements (or ”dust”) created from exploding stars. My hope is that this symbolic representation allows the viewer to see these phenomena as a complete picture of an interacting Universe. Using these animals and insects, I am going to make my own ”creation” myth of the Cosmos to parody current and past creation myths which are strongly reliant upon animals, to show how humans attempt to understand the epic intricacy of the Universe.
SheWalksSoftly 
June 9, 2014 at 11:53 pm
The Reclamation of Nature, that’s how I would entitle her work. In my opinion the “Cosmos” theme is stretching the imagination quite far. I perceive the birds and butterflies as the Earth Goddess’s guides for the animals’ souls as they decompose in poetry form.
June 10, 2014 at 11:47 am
Hmmm, I’m not sure I understand quite what Marx is saying, but her artwork’s certainly complex and fascinating :). I like her delicate, limited colour palette too. -Nx
June 10, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Oooo! I really like her explanation!
It struck me that people in the past must have looked around them and thought that there’s only two things that can make anything happen: humans and animals. They’re the only things that move around and cause change, so their myths are full people, god-people and animals.
These days we’re much more comfortable with strange, invisible forces like gravity and electromagnetism. We don’t need to think of a thing like a man when we see lightning and thunder.
Myths are pretty much DEFINED as untrue for a lot of people. But if you think of them more as stories that we use to figure out the world around us and our place within it, then science can serve just as much as a myth as any other story.
Seems to me Lauren Marx is blending old stories and old myths with modern stories and modern myths.
Science as myth:
June 10, 2014 at 4:59 pm
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