Laura Demme is a ceramicist/mixed media artist residing in Wyndmoor, PA, where she maintains her studio. From an early age, Demme and her four siblings were encouraged to be creative by their mother, an artist. When Demme was 5, her family moved from Norristown to Mexico City, then resettled near New York City when she was 12. After art school and apprenticeships, Demme had a 14-year career as a knitwear designer for Good Housekeeping, Vogue Knitting, and Needlecraft magazines, as well as for department store private labels and designers including Ralph Lauren.  At the same time, she was exhibiting her fiber work (wearable art) and paintings at galleries in NYC and across the country. In the early ‘90s, with the fashion industry ailing, Demme left NYC for Pennsylvania and took a new direction into ceramic work.

 

Demme’s work is personal, but her imagery is universal, meant to be interpreted by the viewer. She currently works in ceramics, fabric, encaustic, and mixed media, incorporating found objects and metals, and has begun to work with wood-firing and porcelain along with other high-fire processes, such as salt and soda. Whatever the medium, Demme pushes the boundaries of each technique. Working by hand, coiling, and pinching, her pieces evolve through a meditative process in which she feels a direct connection to her own unconscious and to the universal mind. With no preconceived plan or image, the pieces seem to construct themselves, as she enjoys the emerging shapes, the volume, the inner forms/inner space. She finds the entire art-making process intriguing, from the collecting of materials to the playfulness of connecting images and objects, making them into a composition or form. At times, she uses the process of making work as a channel for writing words, which form poetry.