Printmaker and surface pattern designer, Andrea Lauren is wholly inspired by her love of nature, walks in the woods, storybooks, folk tales, and childhood memories. Born in England and based in the US, she discovered her love of printmaking at Columbia University in New York while working on her Master’s degree in music. But her interest in surface pattern design sparked much earlier, in primary school, when she visited the V&A museum on a school trip.
Each of Lauren’s designs are drawn by hand and transferred to a rubber or linoleum block. The design is carved into the block and the block is inked and printed by hand. Then it is scanned and edited on a computer in her home studio.
“I do keep a number of different sketchbooks but they are often very rough ideas for the finished pieces,” she says, talking about her creative process with the Fishink blog. “Sometimes they are ideas or themes. Sometimes sketches giving a general guide for composition. Imagining an idea as a relief print has become fairly fluent for me in the last year of concentrated practice. Sketchbooks for me are also a great way to remember and revisit thematic material which was completed earlier in my development and needs another go.”
Talking about her connection with nature, she said that “being connected is an overarching motivation for me as a person as well as in my work. It is easy to see how disconnected one can become with the technology available, but without respecting and acknowledging the incredible natural world it would be a much less rewarding life to live.”
When she isn’t printmaking in her studio, she enjoys taking walks to watch birds or simply enjoy nature. But she also loves spending time with her husband, son, and two cats. Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below.
