Conversations with Lori Bauman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Bauman.

Hi Lori, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today. 
My creative and puzzle-solving mind finally found its place in college. Although I began college as a biology and math major, intending to teach, I left six years later with a studio art degree, a teaching certificate, two babies, and a third on the way.

After years of teaching in multiple community settings, including the Milwaukee Art Museum and Alverno College, I cofounded an arts residency program and gallery called RedLine Milwaukee. Fast forward to 2015 with my kids grown and years of helping other artists find success, I moved to the Southwest. Here, I finally allowed myself to focus solely on my studio practice. LAB Studios is that practice.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being born and raised in the Midwest to a family that was not impressed, immersed in, or concerned with the arts did not give me a head start in the art world. That’s not to say my family wasn’t a creative bunch; they just lacked exposure to the formal arts.

My parents grew up on farms, were depression babies, and learned to be resourceful, disciplined, and waste nothing. That meant it was quite normal to find, keep, and salvage materials, parts, and leftovers for use in creating something new and useful for practical needs or even pure entertainment. I watched and participated in this culture as a child, and when I took my first art class in college as an education major, I couldn’t stop myself from combining materials.

From that point, I could not have become anything other than a mixed-media artist working with found objects. This method of thinking and problem-solving seemed natural, but a new world opened. One in which I had no connections or mentors, only a burning desire to communicate everything in my head and heart through materials and processes. Art became my new language. It’s how I made and still make sense of all the chatter in my head.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The content of my work has always been narrative, exploring human relationships and often abstracting figures. I begin each of my series with a study of cultural norms, traditions, fairy tales or religion as inspiration. My work blends combinations of materials and images I have used and repeated over many years.

Various repeated elements have created a personal library, my visual language, that holds intimate and sometimes universal meaning. For a time, I became a hoarder. Every broken item and every found material was a potential art project. I worked my way up in scale from using small found objects to sawing up railroad ties and cutting out larger-than-life metal forms on a band saw.

My work became very large, very heavy, and very cumbersome to move, store and show. I loved it. Then, I was accepted into graduate school in Italy. I had to reexamine my processes and materials and the obstacles they created. I learned to limit my work to only essential elements to communicate essential emotions.

The fatigue and feasibility of making and moving large-scale work internationally brought me back to a more manageable collage on paper and canvas. I decreased the size and weight of my pieces until I was able to physically carry my work. I began working with fabrics to create the illusion of size and bulk in site-specific installations.

Later, COVID-19 found me confined and restless. I was accepted into a residency program in Mexico City. Travel restrictions and social distancing forced the program to execute online. I missed showing my work in person and having direct feedback from viewers.

The decision to have the viewer become part of my narrative by wearing my work was born. I began printing my collage works onto bolts of fabric via dye-sublimation and turning that fabric into kaftans. I used my existing artworks which explore religion, the origins of ritual, robes, and kaftans to contrast with modern-day elements of worship and devotion in the fashion industry.

I examine how, why, and what the effects of clothing are in relation to gender and how that has changed through time. How the construct of feminine/masculine ideals has dictated shapes, fabrics, styles, structures, and behaviors, and how these elements have played a role in restricting movement, thoughts, abilities, and aspirations.

This information directed my first collection of apparel to explore garment shapes, like kaftans, which harken back to biblical times. A time when these first garments were worn by both men and women. They were gender inclusive.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Anytime you create, you risk. Anytime you communicate a narrative through language or art, there is a risk of being misunderstood. Creating narratives around gender today can ignite strong and emotional responses. Using art to reflect, reject, and challenge today’s beliefs isn’t new, but for me, using clothing as the vehicle is. I am interested in the mortality and universality of these issues, and I question their relevance in modern times.

I want my art to reflect on tradition, habit, morality, and the analysis of life-sustaining rituals and beliefs. I also want us all to consider the changing social and political tides and how humanity will adjust. The intent of my work is not to incite but to open a path of communication, respectful debate, and, ultimately, understanding.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.loribauman.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_labstudios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063912949310
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-bauman-79b58a5/ 

Image Credits
Kylie Bauman