November 2025: My First Solo Art Show!
I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since my art show at The Overture Center opened! Thanks to all of you who came to support me and who visited my paintings when I couldn’t be there. I am so grateful for that heart-opening experience and I’m excited to share that my largest and maybe my most favorite painting, Hello Sunbird, sold as a result. It was such a gift to talk with people and hear how my work moved them. Here’s a few quotes that truly blew me away:
“Your paintings at The Overture are stunning, just want to say thank you. The fragility and dignity of the human experience, on the fragility of bark.” ~Barry Sherbeck
Wooooooow! Your work is outstanding, truly unique, Lael! What a beautiful body of work! I loved your artist statement as well as the statements that accompany the pieces. Brava!!!! ~Alice Traore
“It was one of the most amazing art shows I have ever been to. Your work is absolutely beautiful and so moving and I loved what you wrote by every piece. I knew that what you were doing was good, but this is beyond good. The bark and how it’s so intertwined with the women. Wow!! It makes the art all the more powerful. Congratulations.” ~Pat Calchina
Preparing for that show (2022-2024) took me on an intense personal healing journey as I explored how to rearrange the broken parts of myself into someone unimagined and whole. Surprisingly, it led me back to the beginning of my life and how I came to understand who I am in the first place. This alchemical process helped me integrate parts of myself that have been dissociated from each other for a long time. I spent months connecting with Little Me reassuring her that she’s ok. This inner work is ongoing and I suspect it will be for the rest of my life.
I continue to explore the theme of brokenness in my work. This past year taught me that there’s a difference between feeling broken and being broken open. Feeling broken is the pain of separation, when your soul is shattered into a million pieces, when you don’t recognize yourself, when you believe there's something wrong with you, that you aren't good enough, that you’re unloveable. But being broken open, that’s something else entirely. It’s when your heart cracks open to allow light to pour deeply inside you. It’s when you let go of who you’ve been told you are supposed to be and instead begin to fully embrace who you are. It’s unveiling parts of yourself that have been buried for a lifetime. It makes space for second chakra energy such as joy, creativity, passion, and deep connection.
Given this moment in time and all the cruelty we are witnessing, I believe it’s an act of resistance to create art, to embrace joy, to love who we love, and to nurture community (in addition to direct action, of course).
So, with that in mind…
Please join me for my first solo show, Breaking Into Beautiful
Saturday November 15th, 4-7pm. Artist conversation ~5:30pm
New Rose, 523 1st St, New Glarus, WI
This is a ticketed event with an open bar and yummy food.
Buy tickets here: