Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Klose.
Hi Lauren, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
My passion for art and my creative journey started very early. I was rarely seen without my small pink plastic carry case containing all my most precious markers, watercolors, crayons, and notepads. I remember being excited for vacations so I could pack it up and have hours to create on road trips or plane rides with my family. I was always eager to help my parents repaint a room, help decorate a card for a friend, or choose the poster option instead of the essay option for a school project to highlight my abilities. In 1997, when I was in high school, I painted my first mural in my best friend’s bedroom of all her favorite album covers (Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, Velvet Underground, etc), and when I completed it, everyone was amazed. I studied art and graphic design at James Madison University. I had the privilege of studying abroad in Florence, Italy, during my junior year, which propelled me even further into the immersive world of Renaissance art and seeing and experiencing famous works of the masters that I’d only ever seen in textbooks. It changed my life. After graduating, I became an artist apprentice and learned all of the tricks of the trade of faux finishing and mural painting. The next year, in 2003, I launched my company, Artistic Aire, and the rest is history. I’ve been spending the last 20 years perfecting my craft and offering my clients the highest quality of service and talent within my abilities.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’ve learned a lot about being a business owner in the creative industry in the past 20 years, some the easy way and others the hard way. I’ve had clients refuse to pay, others that I couldn’t make happy, paint spills onto perfect carpeting, slips on ladders, awful conditions while painting outdoor murals, and have tested my balance, strength, and endurance all to their max all in the name of my passion for my craft. From 2010 to 2019, I put my job as a muralist on the back burner to raise my daughter Abbey, born in 2011, and my son Trevor, born in 2014. Once my youngest was ready to enter kindergarten, I was ready to take my career back, and doing so has been one of the most fulfilling things about my path as a muralist. Returning to a job that I love after raising my kids has been profoundly empowering and rewarding, and I feel blessed and grateful every day to do what I love and love what I do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your work.
My portfolio as a muralist is extremely diverse which sets me apart from others because instead of being able to only offer my own “signature style” of painting I can adapt to paint in the style my clients are looking for. I have painted big, bold graphic style murals, and soft watercolor murals painted interior and exterior pieces, big and small. I take on just as many residential as I do commercial clients each year, and I pride myself on having never painted the same mural twice over the past 20 years. I have a crazy, steady hand (I had thought about being an ER surgeon once), which allows me to reproduce even the most detailed logos for some of my corporate clients. Still, I love the flow and ease of some clients who give me the creative freedom to be loose and paint from the heart. I have a lot of favorites from the years, but two pieces that I’ve done in the past few years, one commercial and the other residential, stand out as the pieces I’m most proud of. The commercial piece is on the end cap of the Nocatee Publix in Ponte Vedra, completed for Regency Centers in October of 2021. It’s 24′ tall by 27′ wide and depicts a gorgeous hand-blended ombre sky with a silhouette of trees and wildlife and “Nocatee” in big letters. The other piece is in a living room in Ponte Vedra Beach and has wavy gold metallic lines riding over a watercolor blue background.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I’ve learned on my journey is to keep learning and drawing inspiration from other muralists around me who have been doing this for even longer than I have. I’m inspired every day by other muralists I follow on social media, sometimes by their quality of work but other times by the scales on which they work, which helps keep me humble. I stand in awe at the pieces I see on my travels and know I still have much to learn.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.artisticaire.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artistic_aire/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artisticaire
