Lauren Graf

Lauren Graf’s childhood lives on through her creative roots in cartoons, fashion dolls, and arts and crafts. She delights in taking a canvas painting and adorning it with beads, feathers, embroidery, and—an essential to her work—glitter. Lauren’s philosophy on art mediums is that they can and should be combined, her favorite duo being watercolor and colored pencil. Her kitschy, feminine style express her childlike whimsy combined with her passion for art history and vintage media. Her stylized figures draw inspiration from pin-up illustration, magical girl anime, and Art Nouveau advertisements.

For her senior art pieces, Lauren draws on the transportive qualities of storytelling in art. To Lauren, escapism means seeking out narrative settings that inspire her, such as the far corners of space, the Old West, gothic mansions, and more. She began working on her Shakespeare Art Nouveau series during the first few months of the pandemic to explore her own idealized, illustrated realities. She hopes viewers will enjoy escaping into the vibrant worlds she has created through her pieces.