Laura White Carpenter
Mixed Media and Raku Sculpture / Wood + Ceramic / Paintings
I am a Providence RI-based artist who has been recognized and honored with awards in a variety of media: sculpture, mixed media decorative and functional pieces, painting and photography. In recent years, my work has been accepted into nationally-recognized competitive and juried exhibits in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, Arizona and Texas. Professionally, I hold a degree in art therapy and work daily as an occupational therapist, using art to connect hospitalized patients with their individual healing journeys. I am highly involved in the intersection of art and healing, serve as the chairperson of the Visual Arts sub-committee of Butler Hospital’s Art+History and Healing Arts Committee, and have written related grants and conducted research in the use of the arts with specific populations.
In addition to my healthcare and human services experiences, my work is also greatly influenced by the hidden and hinted-at elements of the natural and man-made world with which we coexist. My compositions are intended to honor individual properties, often by experimenting with perspective and highlighting the unexpected or unusual. I seek to translate and interpret the myriad shapes, textures, and colors into creations in which the beholder can continually find novelty and revelation. My belief is that the impact of a grouping and mixing of materials communicates in a more visceral way than its individual parts. My creative process can be described as perpetual gathering, pondering, trialing, and assembling. In my work, I create an artistic response to the organic and man-made materials available within the cultural experience that surrounds these objects.
I have been blessed to have lived and volunteered on four continents and have been impacted by the seemingly universal imperative of using decorative marks to indicate an object’s or place’s significance. I've lived within the brightly colors painted on every indoor and outdoor surface of a home in Bhutan and similarly within the brown and ochre patterns on a mud structure in Ghana. In both settings as well, I witnessed the fabulously creative methods by which cast-off items could be reused and re-purposed. I've become increasingly alarmed with environmental and climate-change issues which directly affect us all - and I am acutely aware that the impact is always felt most directly first by vulnerable populations. In my personal and professional life, I've made a conscious effort to reuse and reduce in process and in materials. This practice has served to challenge my imagination and propel my art in exciting directions.
Artist Resume, Highlights:
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
Professional Affiliations:
Mixed Media and Raku Sculpture / Wood + Ceramic / Paintings
I am a Providence RI-based artist who has been recognized and honored with awards in a variety of media: sculpture, mixed media decorative and functional pieces, painting and photography. In recent years, my work has been accepted into nationally-recognized competitive and juried exhibits in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, Arizona and Texas. Professionally, I hold a degree in art therapy and work daily as an occupational therapist, using art to connect hospitalized patients with their individual healing journeys. I am highly involved in the intersection of art and healing, serve as the chairperson of the Visual Arts sub-committee of Butler Hospital’s Art+History and Healing Arts Committee, and have written related grants and conducted research in the use of the arts with specific populations.
In addition to my healthcare and human services experiences, my work is also greatly influenced by the hidden and hinted-at elements of the natural and man-made world with which we coexist. My compositions are intended to honor individual properties, often by experimenting with perspective and highlighting the unexpected or unusual. I seek to translate and interpret the myriad shapes, textures, and colors into creations in which the beholder can continually find novelty and revelation. My belief is that the impact of a grouping and mixing of materials communicates in a more visceral way than its individual parts. My creative process can be described as perpetual gathering, pondering, trialing, and assembling. In my work, I create an artistic response to the organic and man-made materials available within the cultural experience that surrounds these objects.
I have been blessed to have lived and volunteered on four continents and have been impacted by the seemingly universal imperative of using decorative marks to indicate an object’s or place’s significance. I've lived within the brightly colors painted on every indoor and outdoor surface of a home in Bhutan and similarly within the brown and ochre patterns on a mud structure in Ghana. In both settings as well, I witnessed the fabulously creative methods by which cast-off items could be reused and re-purposed. I've become increasingly alarmed with environmental and climate-change issues which directly affect us all - and I am acutely aware that the impact is always felt most directly first by vulnerable populations. In my personal and professional life, I've made a conscious effort to reuse and reduce in process and in materials. This practice has served to challenge my imagination and propel my art in exciting directions.
Artist Resume, Highlights:
2018
- Selected as a 2018 Ceramics "Artist in Residence" at The Steel Yard, Providence
- Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac AZ -- Juried National Exhibition "Earth"
2017
- Art League of Rhode Island -- Associate Members Show - Best in Show
- Wickford Art Association, Wickford RI -- Juried Art Exhibit - Second Place
- Wickford Art Association, Invitational Exhibition
- Metamorphoses, Fine Art Invitational Pop-up in Providence RI
- Brownsville Museum of Art, Brownsville TX - Juried International Exhibit, accepted all 3 entries: painting, ceramic sculpture, and mixed media sculpture
- Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland OR – National Juried Exhibition
- Impasto Gallery, Boulder CO -- National Juried Exhibition
- Cape Cod Museum of Fine Art -- National Juried Exhibition
- Plymouth Center for the Arts - National Juried Exhibition - Honorable Mentions for 2 pieces
- www.golocalprov.com/ Live TV interview on August 4
2016
- Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro MA -- “8 Visions” exhibitor – National, competitive, juried exhibition of 8 artists
- Attleboro Arts Museum Community Gallery, Attleboro MA – Solo exhibit
- Coastal Living Gallery, Wickford RI – Collaborative exhibit with Silver Hippopotamus
- Verum Ultimum Gallery, Portland OR – National juried exhibition
- Wickford Art Association, Wickford RI – Juried Open Exhibit, Second Place
- “Portraits of Hope Healing and Community” – Butler Hospital, Providence, RI, co-curated the exhibition from conception to installation
- Providence Art Club, Providence RI—“Color!”, National juried competition
- Sacred and Liturgical Arts Exhibit, Springfield IL – National juried exhibition
- Plymouth Center for the Arts, Plymouth MA – Fine Art of Photography, international juried exhibition
- Wickford Art Festival, Wickford RI – Juried fine art festival
2015
- South County Art Association, S. Kingston RI – Invitational group show
- South County Art Association, S. Kingston RI – Juried open exhibit, First Place
- Wickford Art Association – Juried open exhibit, Juror’s Award
- Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro MA – Member’s Exhibit, Juror’s Award
- Butler Hospital Staff Art Show – curator
2014
- South County Art Association, S. Kingston RI – Member’s Show, First Place
- Art League of Rhode Island, Member’s Small Works Exhibit, First Place - Associate Members
- Mad Dog Artist Studios, Juried open exhibit, Second Place
- Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro MA – Member’s Exhibit, Blick Art Materials Award
- Fine Furniture Show, Pawtucket RI, juried and invitational
Professional Affiliations:
- Art League of Rhode Island, Associate Artist Member
- Attleboro Arts Museum, Artist Member
- Butler Hospital, Visual Arts Chairperson of the Art + History Committee
- Butler Hospital, Co-chair of the Healing Arts Committee
- Fuller Craft Museum, Artist Member
- Collette Royer Consulting, Represented Artist
- Plymouth Center for the Arts, Artist Member
- South County Art Association, Artist Member
- The Steel Yard, 2018 Ceramics Artist in Residence
- Wickford Art Association, Juried Artist Member