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LAYLA LUNA - Artist - Author
Layla Luna - The Jane Series
The Jane Series Statement
It was a summer afternoon and we sat cross-legged in the dirt making mud pies. I used
pine needles to decorate the top of mine. I don't remember the details of my cousin's
pie, I only remember that she was happily chattering away about important kid things.
And we sat like that knowing with every ounce of confidence that we were making mud pies
exactly right.
The Jane Series is a body of work inspired by the pure joy and freedom in which those
little girls created with abandon. It is about reclaiming the courage to make by looking
inward instead of accepting the expectations of worth and success that we are inundated
with on a daily basis. It is reconfiguring the massive amounts of information our society
feeds us into something simple and orderly.
Jane is a common name in my small family. I share it as a middle name with my fellow
mud-pie-making cousin, maternal grandmother, mother, and daughter. It was the first
name of my paternal grandmother. It is a compact name that I associate with simplicity
and kindness – much like the uncomplicated, confident actions of two children playing.
Other fond female names title each painting as an homage to the authors and heroines
of my favorite childhood books.
About
My studio practice is dedicated to unpacking the idea of home. For years, I believed the
only way to know home was to continually leave it. This is an exhausting state that
requires you to remain untethered and in constant motion. Then the craziest thing
happened...I had a baby. Emmie's arrival provided the truest understanding of home. It
also reconnected me to my kid self which led to a fantastic studio superpower: the
confidence to play.
My time of moving fast and forward led to the many things that form the armature for
the work I make today. It sparked my love of the desert. It made me believe that certain
places and objects hold hauntedness within them. It rekindled the joy of storytelling
and allowed me to find charm in the fact that memories cannot be entirely trusted.
Or I could've just said that I make landscape paintings, draw silly illustrations,
and write stories.
BIO
Layla Luna was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1975. She received an MFA in Painting from
Texas Christian University in 2016 and a BFA in Painting from Arizona State University
in 2008. She studied at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand where she obtained
a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art in 2011. Artist-in-residence programs around the
country have played a large role in feeding her need to explore and make work in new
environments. Currently Luna resides in Fort Worth, Texas with her daughter, boyfriend,
and three pups.
Represented at Artspace111
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