Laura Zerebeski
Laura Zerebeski is a self-taught artist working in acrylics and mixed media. She has two styles of work: her exuberantly satirical cityscapes depict Vancouver and the surrounding province while her more introspective abstracts pull inspiration from music, literature, and poetry.
Of the landscapes, Zerebeski says, “I’m a runner and a cyclist. With my landscapes, I try to portray the sense that one might have when moving through it. Certain landmarks you see might hang in your head and then you see another landmark or point of interest; in your mind, it all seems closer together and brighter because of endorphins and fresh air and good weather.”
Her abstraction of nature is minimal compared to the abstraction of man-made things, which makes whatever is built by humans seem less stable than the natural environment that surrounds it. So nature – mountains, trees, clouds, oceans – appears to have stability compared to whatever humans create within it.
Of her abstracts, she says: “These are more experimental internal landscapes. The process is more metamorphic, combining time and pressure and opportunity.”
She enjoys depicting the complexity of an emotional response, whether as a gut reaction to the surrounding beauty or an interpretation of a particular line of poetry. The external landscapes have an unaffected tongue-in-cheek joy, while the abstract works – like our own internal landscapes – are subtle and rich.
Zerebeski joined the Beaumont as a resident in September, 2008, and actively collaborates with and is inspired by other artists in the building.
