Laura's statement

I don't really feel what I make is art. It is more like therapy. I get these thoughts and feelings inside of me, and the only way to relax or get through my day is if I expel them. I guess what I am trying to say may sound selfish. But I make what I make for myself primarily, then maybe for other people. I cannot count the times that I've painted a painting or wrote a short story, never to show it to anyone else. I was compelled, driven to create it, but not for any fame, fortune, or attention. I do not like too many eyes on me. I feel like I have enough eyes on myself already. I used to put contact paper (the kind you line drawers in old houses with) on the walls of my bedroom, that way, when I woke up in the night with one of those ideas that drove me crazy, I would not have to stew until morning. I would grab the Sharpie on my nightstand and run over to the wall and just get out what ever it was: a word, a phrase, a picture, a scene. I feel weird making art as an assignment, because my brain never works that way. Which is why, even though I love art and all forms of it, I could never bring myself to be and art, creative writing, etc, major, because I have to do things on my own terms, which means on my own time. I let it flow when it's there. You can't squeeze water out of a dry rag. I have no idea if this paragraph explained why I make art. I suppose, like most of the things I create, it has meandered into something else. But maybe that is art too.