On the walls of the Wilmington Drama League in September 2006 was an art show called “Visions of Apocalypse and Love,” which featured my oil and acrylic paintings. After looking over the collection of images I had assembled for this show, I noticed they all depicted either the people and things I love, or complete death and destruction; hence the name of the show. I also noticed how the images in my paintings have changed from amorphous ideas and vague spinning visions to clearer self-reflections.
My biography as a visual artist is very local, although getting out of town is what inspires me. I was born in Maine, but I have lived 27 of my 39 years in Delaware. After graduating from Mount Pleasant High School in 1984 with a quality art education from Mr. Busto, I moved to Newark where I went to the University of Delaware. At UD I drew a weekly cartoon, “Lauer’s Logic” for the student newspaper and showed my first paintings in a student art show. After graduation, I moved to Mystic, Conn., and my paintings were included in a group art show in nearby New London. A year later, I moved to San Francisco where I continued to paint and draw. Two years of professional writing and drawing in the city prepared me to move north to Eureka where I published, wrote and illustrated a local arts magazine called Anthem Monthly for six years. In Eureka, my paintings were featured in several local group shows. My decade in California ended in 2000 when my family and I moved back to Wilmington. In 2004, I had my first solo show of paintings at a gallery called Belongings in Bellefonte.
My paintings portray the things that inspire me: family, friends, dreams, nature, change, mortality, light, colors, shapes, fear, peace and love.
Chris Lauer
