Laura Wacha

Born and raised in Sarasota, Florida, Laura Wacha's formative years were steeped in the cheerfully low and tastelessly high of American culture; the usual Florida kitsch and kin. From retired circus performers and aging munchkins, to wealthy blue haired dowagers with their dyed-to-match poodles, the young artist found many characters worthy of note, and saw in John Ringlings' marvelous collection of theatrical paintings how art could both amaze and amuse. Declaring herself an artist at age three, she attended pro-wrestling matches and watched the greyhounds chase the mechanical rabbit in practice runs at the dog track. She ran through sprinklers, ate grilled cheese sandwiches and recited the Brownie Promise in a neighborhood of modest ranch houses. In third grade, Ms. Wacha began attending school at a unique campus set aside for gifted children, and eventually completed her liberal arts education by graduating cum laude from Mt. Holyoke College in S. Hadley, Massachusetts.

Ms. Wacha began painting in acrylic on canvas in 1992, and later began making papier mache sculptures when she returned to elementary school as an art teacher. At present she also works in clay and has produced over 350 paintings, 200 sculptures, 3 sci fi novels and 2 children. Her home and studio sit on a 5 acre compound of dead cars, broken appliances, and old trailers in the New Mexico desert.

Ms. Wacha declares her work to be personal allegories of her life at home and of the world at large. Flamboyantly colored and tightly packed, her paintings employ images both grotesque and humorous, cartoonish and yet beautifully executed, to show what may lie beneath the surface of how we view ourselves, our roles in society, our families, our neighbors, and even the nightly news report. Her paintings often carry many narratives on a single canvas which encourage the viewer to spin stories of their own.