This page is work from one of my favorite artists, Lauren Naftel, my little sister. I've always found her work to be beyond incredible. It's thick and gooey. It's hard to figure, sometimes hilarious and at other times painfully explicit. She is one of the hardest-working humans I've ever had the pleasure to know. I am adding this page to my site because I know she won't ever have a chance to build one. Not only does she create amazing sculptures and paintings, for the last so many years she worked as the Operations and HERO Program Director for the Great Plains SPCA. She is FEMA certified for animal rescue and has put herself in harms way numerous times for the welfare of animals. I hope you enjoy it. I'll post more images of her work as I find them or snap them off on trips back home. So keep checking back and email if you have any questions.
Lauren's intends to pull the viewer in with familiar cozy forms and treatment. Her kitschy nostalgic aesthetic with dark sexual tones; a sickeningly cozy attraction that uncomfortably or curiously seduce the viewer. The topics of gender identity and sexuality are combined with familiarity of nostalgia. She's playful with regards to the relationship between surface, ornamentation, and form. Combining commercially mass produced molds and decals, discarded tchotchkes, and common crafting materials. Each piece comes with a narrative, each an individual conversation that reflects personal history. Ornamentation camouflaging dirty secrets and a bricolage of personal and shared memories.