Local artist profile: Lauren Starr

THIS week we chat with fine art photographer Lauren Starr

What initially motivated you to become an artist?

I think it’s been a gradual unfolding. Seeds planted at different moments in my life that have led to where I am now. There was a tipping point last year where I knew I couldn’t not be an artist. I had to dedicate more time to making all the ideas in my head. The desire to create, to make artworks that reflected my life and connected me with other people, was consuming.

You have a really unique style. How would you describe it?

I’m a fine art photographer. I often take numerous photographs and then meticulously blend them together to bring the stories in my head to life. I couldn’t achieve my vision with a single photograph, and merging the various shots together gives me absolute freedom to add elements of fantasy and whimsy into the work. My pieces will nearly always have a detailed story behind them, and I often like to include multiple layers of meaning.

You sometimes like to focus on Bendigo and regional Victoria in your artworks. What draws you to these particular themes?

I’m enamoured with the past, and in particular the 1700-1800s. Bendigo, and regional Victoria, make the perfect backdrop for period art pieces. I’m constantly inspired by Bendigo architecture, wondering who lived where, what their lives might have been like.

Which other artists inspire you?

This is a long and ever-growing list. I have a mix of painters, photographers, writers and poets that inspire me. Brooke Shaden was the first photographer to teach me about fine art photography and what was possible. I’m drawn to renaissance and surrealist painters such as Caravaggio and Dorothea Tanning. Pre-Raphaelite painter John Waterhouse for his dreamy, romantic works – especially Ophelia – and Frederick McCubbin for his beautiful Australian bush scenes. Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson and Derek Walcott are some of my favourite poets.

What are some highlights you have from your career so far?

It’s nice to look back on quite a few highlights over the past two years. I was featured in the Bendigo Magazine Autumn 2020, which highlighted the art I had made to raise money for the bushfires: this was my debut as a local artist. Since then I’ve opened a studio/gallery in the arts hub in Valentine’s Antiques on View Street, graduated the Incubator Program with the Emporium Creative Hub, had a major exhibition at Dudley House, and most recently have been awarded the Bluethumb Art Prize for Photography.

How has your practice been affected by COVID?

We opened our Arts Hub at 18 View Street in August 2020 and the next day went into lockdown. Paying rent for a studio space in the middle of a pandemic has been challenging.

The silver lining for me personally was having uninterrupted time to create. A few of my Bendigo pieces were shot on the empty streets in the early days of lockdown, and my love of Dutch still life came from pondering life/death and needing to photograph things at home.

How can people check out your work?

Come and visit 18 View Street, Bendigo. Inside Valentine’s Antiques is a treasure trove of history and its home is the old Sandhurst Trustee Building, the building is breathtaking. Everything can be purchased through the artist or Valentine’s.