Artists Tell Their Stories: Lori Loveberry George, Mixed Media Artist, Tells Her Story

Its all about mark making and process. I need to capture the essence of whatever I draw. I am not a painter, but I paint on my drawings.

#212, Acrylic, Wax & Charcoal, 60 x 48

I used to have to make all my drawing perfect, rework, overwork, until I killed it. In high school art class, one of the other students told me, “You ruin all your drawings. You overwork everything.” I never forgot that, and still I overworked them to draftsmanship perfection. It was the finished product that was important, but that is not important anymore.

#2145, Pastel, Acrylic & Charcoal, 30 x 23

In 2006, when I was 48, I went back to college to get my BA in visual arts. It was then I finally learned how to let go of my need to control, and to play. It changed my life and my mark making. I allowed myself to take risks and learned to trust the process. One of my instructors gave me my breakthrough assignment: Tape up at least a 5’ x 5’ paper, apply a wax resist medium, use thin acrylic, and paint with a 4” wide brush. I was terrified. I continued the process, combining different materials and substrates, and I was free from a tightly rendered perfection prison.

Wild Child, Wax & Acrylic, 59 x 51

I still like to set up vignettes and draw from life -- it’s my meditation. I like to plot out, sight and measure the image to the paper. It fulfills my need to control, but I am practicing observation skills, not to create a perfect drawing.

Angel Caido, Pastel on Paper, 24 x 18

Grand Idea II, Pastel on Paper, 24 x 19

The human form interests me the most. Gesture and form can tell a story that evokes a primal unspoken language regardless of race, class, or culture. In 2013, I created a series of drawings and large scale mixed media paintings based on a book I found at the library – Pictures From a Drawer, Prison and the Art of Portraiture by Bruce Jackson – of restored images of early 20^th century prison I.D. mug shots. Like looking in a mirror, these haunting images reveal the beauty of the flaws, scars, and vulnerability of the human condition, which most of us are afraid to acknowledge.