The studio is a sanctuary for Lauren Mckenzie, who, under the name Lauren Pearce, creates intricate, mixed-media portraits in Cleveland Heights. She can listen to the “Nosferatu” soundtrack and put aside distractions while she sketches the Black figures in her paper series or paints colorful textiles to use for their clothing.
“I can always tell if I am not in the studio there's something off with me,” she said. “Being in here every single day, it's a remedy for me.”
She’s developed an art practice that celebrates her identity and life experiences while also supporting her health.
Diagnosed with autism as an adult a couple of years ago, Pearce adjusted the pace and expectations of her work and better connected with herself through her art.
“Being a young Black mom, and then being on my own and a single mom, I think it has forced me to really, really get to know myself. And a lot of the times that takes place when I'm in my studio,” she said.
Evolving her practice
While she grew up in sunny West Palm Beach, Florida, she’s been working as an artist in Northeast Ohio for nearly a decade, with a short detour to Arizona in 2022.
That year was a turning point for her. She said she was challenged by burnout, isolation and a new health diagnosis, while at the same time invigorated by nature, paying more attention to herself and slowing down her art process. From there, Pearce developed her paper series, which fuses drawings with painting, fashion and collage work.
“What I love about this series specifically is that it takes so long for me to create. It is forcing me to slow down and to be more intentional about my practice,” she said.
The desert and her love for the outdoors are present in her portraits. So are fashion, fantasy and bright colors, influenced both by living in South Florida and her Jamaican heritage.
She draws on both joy and conflict from her childhood, when she was given white paper dolls from a well-meaning grandmother. But she was unable to see herself in the dolls.
“That’s really important that now I get to see my full self and celebrate my full self in a way that I didn't get to as a little girl,” she said.
Art in motion
Pearce further builds on her paper portraits through a current collaboration with her 11-year-old niece, inspired by bugs.
“It’s an emphasis on transformation and the metamorphosis of evolving as a woman and paying homage to the young me,” she said.
Pearce shared the bugs she wanted to use with her niece, who in turn drew her own reflections. Those designs influenced Pearce’s for the latest pieces in her series, which will be on view in March at a gallery in Chicago.
On a recent winter morning, Pearce worked on one of those pieces, cutting strips of paper she had painted earlier in different shades of red that later fuse together as the clothing in her portraits. The multi-step process blends her interests in figurative and abstract art with her love of fashion.
In the future, Pearce said she’d like the clothing designs to come off the paper and onto human models in a runway show. She’s also interested in experimenting with sculpture and metalwork.
“I want to do more play,” she said.
Pearce also will exhibit a couple of pieces this month at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in New York, part of a group show. While she has had the honor of showing work in several U.S. cities, as well as internationally in Ghana, London and Rome, Pearce said she would like to show more in Cleveland. She’s interested in building more relationships locally and recently moved her workspace into 78th Street Studios, a hub for artists and galleries on the city’s West Side.
“I feel very proud of myself for the things that I've overcome in the last couple of years. I think there's more of a maturity in my work,” she said. “The older that I get, the, just, more I fall in love with myself, and I think that that really radiates through my work.”
