Laura SXTN Art

10/02/2026

09/28/2026

I am really enjoying using thrift store finds to live collage at figure drawing sessions! I don't think I'll ever top the 79 cent atlas, but the coloring book and Van Gogh calendar worked beautifully too!

Special thanks as ever to figuredrawingcharlotte Free Range Brewing and also to 𝔞𝔳𝔞 𝔮𝔲𝔦𝔫𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔟𝔲𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔱𝔱 for the great poses and killer style! I only wish I'd had time to collage her makeup too!

▫️▫️▫️

Charlotte art, Charlotte artists, local art, figure drawing, live models, live collaging, collage art

09/21/2026

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the best prize at plein air--or any art competitions--is the SALE! And BOTH of my pieces for this year's Arts Mount Holly found their new homes! Gotta say, though, getting a "Special Award" was also pretty great.

But maybe the best part? Hanging out with my youngest and 2 of her artsy besties (the "Tall Girl Group Chat" friends from middle school she doesn't get to see much) was equally rewarding. I also claim credit for scouting the location that got the 2nd tallest Tall Girl honorable mention this year (2 years in a row!)

Special thanks to Arts Mount Holly, to the Tall Girls for arting with an old lady (and not patting me on my head), and to René Fielder for my Special ribbon!

▫️▫️▫️

Plein air painting, plein air collage, mixed media landscape, mixed media collage, Mount Holly, Charlotte artist
Guild of Charlotte Artists Charlotte Studio Artists

09/07/2026

My youngest has decided--much as I did at her age--that thrifting is her preferred means of wardrobe filling. This is both excellent and dangerous for me.

Excellent: lots of cool, cheap materials for mosaics and collage.

Dangerous: teetering towers of cool, cheap materials with less and less storage.

Still, can't be mad at the huge late-20th-century atlas I found without a pricetag, so it was like $1.

Special thanks to Gaston County Museum for the figure collaging space and time and to Upstatemodel for the great poses!

▫️▫️▫️

Charlotte art, Charlotte artists, local art, figure drawing, live models, live collaging, collage art

Guild of Charlotte Artists figuredrawingcharlotte

08/29/2026

TW: suicidal ideation

It's not my most elegant piece. It's mosaic in the personalized art box that was too precious to use for most of 35 years, and the symbols seem pretty disjointed, if I'm honest. But for the I Can Hold Your Heavy show, this is quite possibly the heaviest thing I have carried my entire life--and not because of the glass and grout.

I once called Charlie in the middle of the night not long after my first husband had moved out and left me alone with a tiny baby. I could NOT leave that tiny baby helpless, but I REALLY didn't think I could make myself keep living through the night either.

I didn't think I could NOT end myself without someone there to hold me accountable, and Charlie has pretty much always been the person I believed could and would drop everything if I said I needed him. I suppose that really makes it strange he wasn't the one I married first.

Charlie showed up, slept on the pull-out couch while the baby and I slept in my room. I went to work and dropped the baby off at daycare, picked him back up, and came home: Charlie was still there--just waking up apparently, and asked how I was.

I don't think I had a specific plan for the HOW then, but that was the first time I ever came that close.

It was not the last.

They say you have to ask people at risk for such scenarios if they have a plan how to do it. I have to watch that video training every year as a teacher. And still somehow I missed asking someone else that question when it was most important and I knew something was wrong. At that point it had probably been maybe 4 years since I had a plan for how to end it and still had moments of considering the right tree to drive into.

I could not be more grateful that the person I missed out on asking is still with us and was only hospitalized while medication was adjusted, not recovering from an attempt.

But walking around for maybe 12 years with shifting plans to end myself WAS exceedingly heavy. Walking around with the knowledge that someone close to me had a plan is just about as heavy.

But now my plans are inside a box. Never quite locked away, but I am proof you can survive them. Just make it through tonight first.

08/26/2026

3 different figure drawing sessions at 3 different venues came together for this piece I call "Range of Motion." I used some papers I got from ReMix It with Stephanie Houser Newman to bring some flow to the poses, and overall am just enjoying the color scheme.

This piece is going up for "Black, White, and Everything in Between" at Charlotte Studio Artists , opening next month, and you're going to love the interpretations of the theme!

▫️▫️▫️

Charlotte art, Charlotte artists, local art, figure drawing, live models, live collaging, collage art

Guild of Charlotte Artists

08/17/2026

I hit one last figure drawing session at the McColl Center before the school year started this week, and I have to say, I think it did refresh me a bit and helped me be ready to face the first day.

I'm very pleased with my upcycled grocery bag papers, but I am starting to run low on the wedding invitations finally

I've also started experimenting with backgrounds and combining poses. These are mostly probably 8-10" long or tall individually, so how many should I combine and how big should I go?

▫️▫️▫️

Charlotte art, Charlotte artists, local art, figure drawing, live models, live collaging, collage art

figuredrawingcharlotte
Guild of Charlotte Artists

08/06/2026

I hit a couple of figure drawing sessions at Free Range Brewing and Gaston County Museum before the school year is fully up and running. It's gonna be a FULL one, I can tell you that now. I think it would be good for me if I could try to make one session a week at least most weeks, so that's my goal as of now.

In the meantime, I feel like I'm hitting a groove with my live collaging style and would like to expand beyond the figure drawing setting. I have 2 ideas:

✂️ Collaging people sitting naturally as they read

✂️ Collaging people with hypermobility sitting casually

My youngest is the inspiration for both really, as she ends up in the strangest positions, reading and in general. But they always look kind of...poetic.

It would be cool to do something with libraries maybe, or to bring readers into the studio. The libraries have comfy chairs already, but I'd have to scrounge up seating at CSA...

Do I have any readers/sitters willing to model? Which setting would you prefer?

▫️▫️▫️

Charlotte art, Charlotte artists, local art, figure drawing, live models, live collaging, collage art

Guild of Charlotte Artists Charlotte Studio Artists