Quiet Alchemy
A three-month show of my work in San Diego.
It’s a deeply felt joy
to have my first solo exhibition presented in a library.
A place dedicated to words and knowledge encompassing centuries of thinking is a dream setting for my art to be showcased. I revere these spaces. (In no small part due to my fifth grade librarian and this book.1 )
With a selection of nearly thirty paintings from the past two years,
I hope you’ll visit if you’re in town, as there’s no substitution for experiencing art in person. It runs September through November (details below).
Here’s one of two signs I painted for the show’s title. You can check out the other version on my Instagram. You’ll have to catch the show to see which one made it into the display.
When thinking about the name for this,
I was preoccupied with ideas about how mystical-mad-science-y creating truly is. Here’s the accompanying description exploring this suggestion:
In whose mind does there not exist enchanted vaults?
My own is a nebulous space, where live blurred impressions and hazy, lamp-lit notions, imagination holding court alongside ember’d passions, all brewing quietly — often impatiently — awaiting sublimation.*
Transmutation of thought into painted existence is, for me, an alchemical turn — a suggestion of magic in this world for those who would see it. Should any doubt this, I offer fireflies.
Featuring scenes of San Diego and farther afield, painted both en plein air and from echoes of memory, to representations of a love of books, the small hours of night, and a curtain drawn back on personal tableaus — these paintings are a gathering of quicksilver moments, longings and musings, drawn out through a bit of quiet alchemy.
*In the archaic sense.
Quiet Alchemy is on view at the Mission Hills / Hillcrest Knox Branch library -
215 West Washington Street, San Diego, CA, 92103.September 3rd - November 25th
11:30am - 8pm Mondays & Tuesdays
9:30am - 6pm Wednesday through Saturday
(Closed Sundays & holidays)
Parking is below the building and validated for the first two hours. When you walk in through the main doors, head straight to the second entryway and turn left as soon as you enter.
A number of pieces on display are available to be collected. You can purchase them from my shop. 20% of the proceeds from the sale of artworks on view, collected during the show, will be donated to the San Diego Library.
Many thanks to the San Diego Library for this opportunity, to Sarah who facilitated it, and branch manager Steve for your support.
This is a brilliant highlight to my year,
one I hope to share with you.
x Lauren
Looking for more? Here are few newsletters that might interest you:
• You’ll notice a lot of work in this show is surprisingly small, read about my thoughts on scaled down paintings here.
• A favorite: this newsletter discusses what I adore about painting as well as a list of some beloved artists and their works that knock me sideways.
• Here’s a little insight to my compositional choices and the artists that inspire them.
©Lauren Elyse S., 2024. All rights reserved.
This newsletter is not to be reproduced in whole without specific written permission. Sharing of small excerpts permitted with credit and links back. Thank you.
I am in no way connected with or benefiting from mentioning this book. I specifically linked Bookshop.org because their organization - above others, imho - deserves the support should you be curious enough to read this. Fair warning, it’s a dense, informative tome, but one so rich with the history of the library I could not get enough. The research is mind-bogglingly impressive as it is thorough.