Cover Artist Lori Seals

by Jamey Landry

One of her earliest experiences at LSU made a lasting impression on our cover artist, Lori Seals. After various artistic achievements early in her college career, one class in particular really exposed Lori to the naked truth about the basics of art.

“Teachers at LSU were so encouraging,” Lori recalls. “I took a succession of classes where I was learning so much and growing as an artist. It was a very exciting time.” Then IT happened, and the fast lane hit an ugly bump. “I took this nude portrait class!” Lori says, with a girly giggle.

Unaccustomed to portrait work, as the students encircled the model, Lori wound up in a spot that proved to be less than ideal. “I got a really bad position for the painting. It turned out terrible—it looked like Charles Manson!” Lori chuckles. From the start of the assignment, it was evident to her that portraiture was not going to be her thing, but she kept at it, eager to learn something from the experience. The painting, however, got worse. Much worse. And so began the salvage work. “I kept changing it and changing it, and I ended up with this bizarre psycho-looking portrait. There were a lot of things [that made that painting bad]. I was young, just 18, and I had to paint this nude male and the painting was just so terrible,” Lori laments, and then laughs. When the class was over, as a joke, she wrapped the painting up and gave it to her roommate’s beau. He gave it back.

Looking back at it now, Lori realizes the portrait fiasco in college helped focus her new direction. Her experiences at LSU showed her where her strengths and interests lie. Even today, her willingness to experiment comes in part from her studies at LSU, and from other art instruction and workshops. Along the way, she developed her skill as a photographer both as an art in itself and as an aid to her painting. Her degree and work as an interior designer and in architectural design also contribute to her painting.

From this broad range of work, she recognizes her preferences go toward impressionism. She confirms, “Overall, my style is impressionism, but I have my phases” with other styles. Very realistic still lifes done in small scale are one of those interests. Gathered into petite diaries, these works help her focus her eye for larger-scale pieces, and sometimes they replace larger pieces altogether. The diaries offer Lori a place to play with the direction a new work will take.

Even after 20 years as an accomplished professional artist and photographer, Lori’s style is still evolving. “Sometimes all it takes is a workshop or class or painting to completely inspire me to go in a little different direction.” Following these twists and turns allows her to channel her energy into something new, keeping her work interesting and fun.

Lori’s photography plays an important role in her paintings. Like many artists, she will routinely photograph subjects as they present themselves, and paint them later. Growing as a photographer has taught Lori to see things differently. “When I first started, I didn’t know what to photograph. I thought ‘How do these photographers take just the ordinary objects and make them so extraordinary?’” Capturing that subtle something special in ordinary objects or settings is what shines through in Lori’s art.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Lori’s commission work began to hit home—literally. For a time, she was doing watercolour renderings of clients’ homes lost to Katrina. Clients would bring her photos of the house, often just soggy remains, and Lori would work with her clients to reconstruct the home in her watercolour. “My last request was from a girl from Chalmette whose mother lost her house in Katrina, and, of course, all the pictures, everything in it. She brought me a picture of the pretty-much-destroyed house. She asked if I could tell what it looked like so I could ‘put it back together.’ So I did, and later she called and left this tearful message about how the painting was just as they remembered it. It was a really, really neat thing to do.” The house renderings were something she did for a little while, and, as one might expect, business was sadly very brisk. Although she still gets requests from customers asking for renderings of their homes, Lori’s schedule prevents her from taking on many of them. “But some of the Katrina ones were really special. It meant a lot [to me] to take a photograph and almost rebuild their house on paper for them.”

The artist in Lori Seals is a reflection of so many things: the inquisitive student, the designer and stylist, the photographer and the storyteller. She uses the subjects and the varied media to reach out to and reflect her community. The diminutive pages of her diaries hold the wonder with which she looks at her surroundings.

Lori’s work is represented at the Arts and Frames Gallery in Covington and at select galleries in New Orleans and Grayton Beach, Fla. She is also available for commission work. Contact her via e-mail at lseals64@hotmail.com or at www.lsealsart.com.