Laurie Waller Benson

Artist
Territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Anishnabeg, the Mississauga, and the Huron-Wendat (Cannington, ON, Canada)

Welcome! I hope you enjoy looking at my most recent original print/collage, Phoenix!

Phoenix, Mixed Media Relief Print & Collage, 12” x 16”, 2022, $450

*Not including shipping.

I have many other prize winning linocut/collage prints, etchings and lithographs in many price ranges and sizes, framed and unframed, all one of a kind! My Muse has been Mythology and the Natural Environment. You can also view my “Harbingers” (linocut/collage), “Wounded Cormorant” (lithograph/collage), “Living the Dream” (mixed media), “Libellule” (etching/collage) and “Lucky Dragon” (linocut) at Port Perry Ontario’s Kent Farndale Gallery from June 25 until July 22, 2022! All these can be viewed on my Facebook Page or on Instagram starting June 25, 2022.

Artist Statement:

I am currently working in multimedia printmaking, using lino cut and etching and incorporating unusual and handmade papers, fabric, beads, buttons, shells and found objects. Sometimes I embellish with pen and ink line work. I love texture and line and how they can be combined.

Sculpturally, I also create assemblages that make political and ecological statements, and rebuild and repaint Garden Gnomes.

My Muse tells me to embrace Fantasy, Nature and the Supernatural. She leads me to great mentors like acclaimed print maker Angela Hennessey, SCA, and creatrix Erica Ross! Erica's Open Studio allowed me to experiment without judgment, collaborate with other creators, and totally be my weird self.

My newest piece is “The Phoenix”, an image that has been in my mind since even before the pandemic. The mythological bird represents rebirth out of destruction, a hope that we all share in these chaotic times. As Chaos is the doula of creativity, the fiery Phoenix nest immolates and in the cauldron of that chaos is born the new bird. But if you touch it, you are reduced to ash!

Carving the linoleum, challenged by the curving lines, rolling the ink, revising, then choosing papers to print on and embellishments: a prayer to the Muse and renewed Life.

Bio:

I was born in Los Angeles of Canadian parents who went South to seek their fortunes. Not finding them, and disliking the politics and school system, they moved back to the Montreal area where my mother was born when I was four. I was always drawing and painting, and when my parents took me to the doctor at the age of six because of my “excess emotionality” he recommended drama classes!

I was also raised on the edge of the suburbs, where I could wander the woods and fields collecting wild berries and fruit, tadpoles and aromatic leaves for tea. So when I say my Muse is the Natural Environment, it comes from a very early age. Most of my work has birds, animals, insects, plants or mythological animals as subjects.

Growing up I attended CECEP at Concordia then went to Bishop’s University to get a BA Double Honours in Drama and Geography, combining two of my passions. They didn’t have an Art program so I satisfied that craving with Set and Props Design.

After a career in Acting in Toronto, I switched to Real Estate so I could afford to have children, as my husband was also an Actor and male performers have a better “best before” date. As the children were growing up I helped found a gallery in Cannington Ontario which seemed a lovely place to raise kids and had a large artistic community. I taught young people at the Gallery and also started teached Yoga there. That led to gaining my Montessori training where I specialised in Art, Music and French, and my Yoga training internationally in Costa Rica, Mexico and India. 

I am now painting, printmaking, collaging and exhibiting in South Durham and teaching Yoga out of my home studio and on Zoom, I also lead “Herb Walks” at various festivals where I teach Yoga and Fire Dancing! I love my life!

Contact: thecanningtonbensons@gmail.com
Instagram: @lauriewallerbenson Facebook: Laurie Benson