In my new work, I have adjusted my approach. I make a drawing on newsprint before I begin the painting. Because newsprint is fragile and the drawings are not archival, I find that I am less attached to the work itself and more free to engage in the process. Once I am satisfied with the sketch, I proceed to the painting. This work is personal and challenging for me. While I have not received a formal diagnosis, I suspect that I experience Body Dysmorphic Disorder. I live with clinical depression and anxiety, and all of these experiences find expression in my paintings. My relationship with my body is a theme I have resisted until recently. Feelings of shame and alienation permeate my sense of my own physicality, but when I bring my painter’s eye to the task of rendering my own form, my critical mind disengages. I am able to see myself, to see my body in terms that I can accept: colour, form, light and shadow. In this way, I am painting myself into the world.

During the residency I will develop a plan to create studies for a new body of work exploring corporeality, using drawing and gouache mediums, and also to connect with and perhaps collaborate with co-horts. I’m currently exploring body shame/acceptance using my own body and my relationship with it. I have already started on some studies in my studio but I’d like to explore how much further I can take this.

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Laurie M. Landry went to Emily Carr University of Art & Design and completed the Fine Arts Techniques in 2008, and has since continued training with a mentor program and in-class workshops. Influenced by painters Jenny Saville, Colin Davidson, Rembrandt and Freda Kahlo, she found her focus in contemporary portraiture, focusing on marginalized subjects. Laurie has exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions since 2013, and have received three Canada Council for the Arts grants to support her art practice. Laurie now lives and paints in Vancouver, BC.