ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings and drawings explore intimacy through the overlooked details and subtle textures of daily life. I am drawn to capturing the small, everyday moments that often pass unnoticed—rainwater pooling in the central cup of a bromeliad plant, the nestling weight of a loved one’s feet, a canine companion’s steady regard. These moments matter to me not only as acts of close looking, but as reflections of how we relate to places, objects, and one another. What may appear ordinary often carries profound emotional resonance. By enlarging or isolating these fragments, I invite viewers to pause and consider the layered complexities of closeness, attention, and care. I build oil paintings in patient, deliberate layers where the material process reflects the time and care intimacy requires.
My works are highly detailed and carefully finished, and I compose and crop them so that what is recognizable shifts as you look. Some subjects reveal themselves immediately; others remain ambiguous, encouraging viewers to dwell in uncertainty. This interplay of clarity and opacity echoes the dynamics of relationships: what is revealed, what is withheld, and what is left unspoken. At its heart, my work is about connection as a process: how we come to know someone, someplace, or something, how those relationships evolve, and how their imprints endure. By foregrounding the emotional charge within familiar textures and everyday encounters, I explore the boundaries between representation and perception, presence and memory.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lauren Petrick Brooks is a Baltimore-based painter whose work explores intimacy, touch, and emotional connection. Her paintings and drawings center on small, overlooked moments of closeness, inviting viewers to reflect on how relationships take shape, whether with people, places, or objects. She builds her works slowly and carefully, allowing process and meaning to grow together and reflecting the time and care that intimacy requires.
Her work has been exhibited nationally, including in “What’s New in Still Life” at LaiSun Keane, curated by John Yau and featured in Boston Art Review (2023), and in a juried exhibition selected by Catherine Murphy. She received third place in the 2023 Miami University Young Painters Competition, juried by Yau.
Brooks earned her MFA in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art and her BFA in Studio Art from The University of Texas at Austin. Alongside her studio practice, Brooks has worked more than fifteen years in arts education and public programming. She designs and leads workshops in museums, libraries, and schools, extending her studio practice into community spaces where art becomes a shared language of connection and reflection.
© Lauren Petrick Brooks