Lauren (Lolo) YS

    Lauren (Lolo) YS is currently a Los Angeles-based artist, although her travels and her art have taken her all over the world. It naturally follows that her journey with art has been unique. Lauren attended Stanford University and completed a residency as well as solo shows at Nychos Rabbit Eye Movement Studio in Vienna.

    Born in Colorado to parents who worked as a pilot and flight attendant, Lauren travelled extensively as a child. She remembers visiting Asia and Europe and drawing to keep herself entertained on long flights. Lauren had a particularly formative experience in Greece, where she saw dead octopi hanging on clothes lines. Viewers of her art will note the similar imagery in many of her pieces. Lauren says of her characters,

    “I think… I think it just comes from an overactive imagination. I used to daydream that I had a tiny mermaid that would chill on my thumb when I was at piano practice in first grade. I was super weird. I was constantly coming up with imaginary things. And I guess just drawing them would help me get that stuff out, and I’ve just never stopped doing it.”

    Lauren has shown work and participated in live-painting events at numerous international art festivals. These festivals include Art Basel Miami, PangeaSeed SeeWalls in New Zealand, Wallskar Festival China, Colorado Crush, Wander and Wayfare, and POW! WOW! in both Hawaii and Long Beach. She has completed indoor and outdoor murals at the Long Beach Museum of Art and the World Trade Center in New York, and her art has been shown in galleries in Vienna, London, Auckland, Melbourne, and Sydney.

    Written by Amelia Nixon

    Sources: http://laurenys.com/About, https://thehundreds.com/blogs/content/lauren-ys-interview, https://www.thepeoplesprintshop.com/blogs/news/interview-with-lauren-ys, https://mightyjaxx.rocks/collections/lauren-ys, https://www.muralsinthemarket.com/lolo-ys

    Image Source (Top): - Lauren YS -

    2018

    Swamp Baby

    In the heart of Long Beach’s City Place Shopping Center, the mural “Swamp Baby” rises four stories along the outer wall of a parking structure. “Swamp Baby” was created by the artist Lauren (Lolo) YS as a commissioned piece for POW! WOW! Long Beach’s 2018 summer festival. Visitors may wish to view the mural from across E 4th Street in order to see the entire piece. However, Lauren YS has included many interesting details visitors may wish to see up close. Towering above the street, “Swamp Baby” depicts a quirky female character standing on top of a frog-like creature and under a mushroom. The colors of the mural include a background that transitions from teal to pink, with other pastel colors contrasting dark blue and black, with a few hints of neon green. Lauren YS’s “Swamp Baby” wears an eyepatch, a dress with a skeleton pattern and frog fasteners, and a band-aid with a frowny face to match her own expression. Her silver hair is styled into two buns, and her ears and hands appear a discolored purple. “Swamp Baby” is both charming and startling, causing many passers-by to stop and contemplate the mural. “Swamp Baby” resembles Lauren YS’s other pieces in that it depicts a heroine from her own imagination who exists in a world different from our own. The fantasy of the mural comes from Lauren YS’s unique imagination. Inspired by the artist’s combination of dreams, mythology, comics, animation, and her own Asian-American heritage, “Swamp Baby” stands distinctively in an area dense with other murals. Written by Amelia Nixon

    Source: https://lbpost.com/life/arts-culture/your-complete-guide-to-pow-wow-long-beach-2018/

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