Laura Rice’s early foray into the world of art includes the “Macramé Owl Series” of the late 70’s. Several of these works from this seminal period still hang on the walls of her parent’s friend’s houses despite her insistence that they could be removed without hurting her feelings.

 

After that her talents lay dormant for many years as she pushed aside creative yearnings for other artistic challenges such as trying to get her curly locks to feather like Farah Faucet’s hair.

 

Her rediscovery of all things arty was due largely to her high school typing teacher Mrs. Holden who whined endlessly at her students in a nasally, monotonous, southern accent, “Quit yer pecking on the type writers.” This voice and Laura’s ineptitude at typing led her to dropping/failing out of typing class and enrolling in a real art class for the first time.

 

Years have passed and she has a Bachelor of Arts in Art from the University of California

Santa Cruz and a Secondary Education Teaching Credential in Art from San Jose State

University. In addition to her degrees, she has dabbled extensively in a variety of art classes and workshops in California.

 

Laura has been seen walking her dogs on the streets of Santa Cruz at midnight wearing a giant, fiber optic, sea anemone costume. She spends most school days wrangling teenagers. Her fellow artists sometimes worry that she is losing her grip on reality when she describes her employment as a high school art teacher as “one of the best jobs in the world.” She gets into her art studio every chance she can get. 

 

Her work can be seen at extremely important, sophisticated, and prestigious venues around the greater Santa Cruz area, where extremely important, sophisticated, and prestigious people hang out and talk about extremely important, sophisticated, and prestigious things.