lauren ohlgren
a bit about me...
I love living in Oregon. In a community that is not only rich in the arts and sciences, it's also the perfect balance of being in close proximity to the ocean, the mountains, the rivers, and the city. Oregon provides a large palette to draw from for making art, with every day a new weather pattern, with 
every mile showing a different landscape view.
I admit that I love the nuance of gray - we have a lot of it - and love all the variations that I can find in that murky middle ground between two pure colors.
Like many artists I create because I can't not create. It's a process that is often ongoing in my head; images manipulating in rapid fire succession through the day, slipping into night, into my dreams. In the morning, I have a sense of direction, the images playing themselves out before me. I’ll have an answer to some obscure question 
that I hadn’t put words to.
I make visual journals. I work in textiles. I work in encaustic and acrylic. I love the smooth, flat surfaces of silk, the smell of wax, and playing with wood, metal, or found objects, as old bisque doll parts find their way into my work.
Teaching. I also love to give people access to that world, not through observation of my own work, but through the direct experience of creating themselves. I teach, or rather, guide others how to create visual travel journals, giving them the tools to capture the images, therefore the memories, of their travels. I’m there to remind people how to ‘see’, and to set judgment aside of what art ‘should’ look like.
She Project. 
I am also the creator of the women’s annual creative event- The She Project. It was started to inspire others to create for themselves. Just play, I tell them, and do it before the
mind gets in there and
ruins the whole experience.
With 120 women signing up to play the first year, 2005, the project gained unexpected or unintended momentum. We continue with the annual project and have published a beautiful book of the first year pieces. Visit The She Project website, or contact me, lauren@ohlgren.com for more information.
