{"id":2162,"date":"2015-12-11T01:12:43","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T01:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/arts-culture\/lori-lamont\/"},"modified":"2015-12-11T01:12:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T01:12:43","slug":"lori-lamont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/lori-lamont","title":{"rendered":"Profile of a Self-Taught Artist: Lori LaMont’s Latest and Largest Work at the LBMA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Photos by Asia Morris.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lori LaMont is a Long Beach keepsake, so to speak. Why this artist hasn\u2019t been picked up by a Los Angeles or New York gallery is any wonder, but we\u2019re more than happy to keep her as one of the city’s most talented painters, a self-taught, meticulous worker whose strictly watercolor paintings of flora, fauna and people behold the boldest and brightest colors, yet evoke an unsettling undercurrent of a darker theme, specifically of society\u2019s insatiable hunger for fashion, entertainment and sport.<\/p>\n

LaMont\u2019s latest and largest work is now on display at the Long Beach Museum of Art\u2019s (LBMA) exhibition entitled Lori LaMont: Under the Influence<\/em>. It\u2019s a staggering two-piece painting, displayed in its own gallery, alongside two other ongoing exhibitions featuring local female artists<\/a>.<\/a> It\u2019s a work of art that is just as interesting with your nose grazing the glass as it is astounding when viewed from a distance.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a herd of deer running toward you, heated and competitive, their coats plastered with the logos and insignias of companies such as BMW, Twitter, Gucci, Burger King, Chanel and Coach. LaMont says the overwhelming branding was inspired by the Tour de France, which she watches with her husband every year. The 21-stage grueling test of endurance with its 22 teams and their hundreds of combined sponsors, spurred a contemplation of logos, social life and society at large.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The race is] so perilous, it\u2019s like a herd of elk,\u201d she mused. \u201c[The cyclists] are totally splashed and every time I watch it I\u2019m inspired in a way that I can\u2019t understand. When it came out in this painting I thought, \u2018This is it, this is what it was egging me on to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The two paintings took her four years to complete and are inundated with questions for the viewer. LaMont wonders with her paintbrush, are humans totally innocent? Are we seduced into what we do? We\u2019re competitive with each other, but also part of a herd (hence the deer) that has to work together. Have the deer been placed in this race against their will or are they in it to win it?<\/p>\n

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“It\u2019s that total seduction of corruption to me, which I find fascinating because I\u2019ve always felt incorruptible,” said LaMont. “I think of myself as really a goody two-shoes, so I feel like I\u2019ve always looked [at] corruption from the other side of the window. I\u2019m totally fascinated by what people do, why they do it and how they do it. That\u2019s what I thought about when I did this one.”<\/p>\n

Not only is her work on display, but she\u2019s also the LBMA\u2019s current Artist in Residence. It\u2019s a rare opportunity to see an established artist\u2019s studio, albeit a temporary one, and their works-in-progress, particularly an artist who most often works in isolation, who thrives in the meditative productivity allowed by solitude and a noiseless space. While LaMont was uncomfortable at first, often surprised and a little skittish at the thought of a museum-going stranger or group of people entering the room, she\u2019s taken the experience in full stride.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m used to being all by myself,\u201d she said. \u201cMy old studio is tiny; I mean it\u2019s so little I can barely squeeze anything in, so I love having this space. [The museum] brings groups of kids and other tours through, which I actually really like. It\u2019s super fun, I just have to remember that I\u2019m painting something and to not just walk away while they\u2019re visiting. But I\u2019m so solitary, so this is\u2026 it\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you stop by the Ralston Family Learning Center at the museum, you can see two of the artist\u2019s current works and several of her finished pieces adorning the walls. LaMont\u2019s linework is certainly something to be appreciated both before and after she\u2019s finished a painting. You realize that oftentimes there\u2019s just as much beauty in the unfinished stages of a piece as there is in all its completed and colorful glory.<\/p>\n

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One of these works in progress, entitled Couched in Red<\/em>, is the artist\u2019s tribute to the Freud family, most notably Bella Freud, the daughter of the late artist Lucian Freud and great granddaughter of the well known founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Inspired by a sketch Lucian drew of his whippet, Pluto, which Bella worked into her collection of cashmere jumpers<\/a> and overall branding, LaMont took liberties with the family\u2019s love for canines, especially those of the greyhound variety.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer dad had painted a super famous painting of her on a red couch. And just recently there was this really small curated group of famous paintings of people on red couches, so I titled this Couched in Red<\/em> because that\u2019s total, total Bella,\u201d said LaMont. \u201c[…]with her designs, her dogs, but just with her [great] grandpa\u2019s [sense of] innuendo and with her dad having painted her portrait. So this one I\u2019m so excited about, I want to get this one done as fast as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chatting with the artist in her newly inhabited studio at the museum is easy going. She\u2019s open about her thoughts and invites you into the conversation with the understanding that her pieces are just as much her conception as the viewer\u2019s once they\u2019re finished. She lets us in on some of the fears she\u2019s overcome as a painter since she sold her first piece 25 years ago, including her own shyness.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who are interested in art for the most part, they\u2019re curious about it, but they\u2019re sort of intimidated to ask the questions, and then the artist is sort of intimidated to talk about it and it\u2019s this weird situation,\u201d said LaMont. \u201cBut when people would ask me about my art I would feel like, \u2018What\u2019s the right answer?\u2019 I realized I could talk about [my work] like a normal person just as if I were having a conversation. That was a hurdle for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While her fear of attempting to explain her aesthetic may have inhibited her social interactions in the past, it could be argued that such shyness came from her comfort in solitude, which, in turn, allowed her to develop such a unique and nontraditional style. LaMont has never once wondered or very much cared whether or not so-and-so might like her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always painted for myself so I get super excited with what I\u2019m doing, so I don\u2019t feel that worry that people aren\u2019t going to like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lori LaMont can be visited during museum hours at the Ralston Family Learning Center through February 21. For more information about the LBMA\u2019s Artist in Residence program, click here<\/a>.\u00a0For a day-by-day look into the life of the artist, follow LaMont on Instagram @lorilamont1<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The LBMA is located at 2300 East Ocean Boulevard.<\/em><\/p>\n

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