Between Two Worlds

My art explores the relationship and the actual space between worlds: imagination and reality, childhood and adulthood, the dream and waking, fiction and non-fiction, television and everyday life. I am interested in the space and the places where these worlds meet, communicate, often collide and sometimes blend. I have created a cast of over 400 imaginary characters, life-size and toy-sized, flat and 3-D, which have become a visual repertory company that perform two and three dimensional narratives, in fictional and “real world” landscapes.

The role of the viewer/audience is very important in my work, so I create the room and mystery to encourage the viewer to project his/her own ideas, feelings and associations onto the individual characters and into the dramas being acted out. This viewer participation helps to bring the “imaginary” to life, thus creating a bridge between worlds. Working with a variety of sizes I hope to encourage the viewer to both experience their childhood memories of playing with toys and then also walk into a life-size world where they can become part of the story.

As a child, I grew up with parents who were involved with theater and television. My father created and produced television shows in the 1950’s and I grew up watching my imaginary friend Hassy suddenly part of the television show “ The Real McCoys “. My grandparents were actors/singers. Growing up in Hollywood had a strong impact on my creative process. My childhood memories have become a major force in my work.

“Laurie Pincus has never gotten out of touch with her childhood; her paintings and sculptures are part of a direct continuum that began when as an infant, she separated her crayons into male and female characters and made up stories about them. Today, her characters range from hand-held to life-size, but they are still crayon-bright in color, and they still move through worlds generated by Pincus’ imagination. These worlds are fantastic but they are also based on reality. They have the naiveté of a child’s vision, but the haunting truth of social commentary.  – Betty Ann Brown, Artweek

“Laurie Pincus aims to show us her fascination with the psychological and the spiritual via an artistic language that she developed in her childhood. But this language grapples with adult situations and emotions: self-discovery; dream visions; romance; our own shadow characters; and gender roles, especially those of women. She uses this art of the child in a culture that is markedly ambivalent about its children: we seem at the extremes of abuse or manipulation. Never the less, she still hopes that her audience will connect with her vision in its vulnerability, compassion and gentle humor. For Pincus life is a gift in which to delight and where dreaming is as real as waking.”  - Gordon L. Fuglie, Director Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University.