ART LIFE: Laura La Forêt Lengyel

Laura L. Lengyel is an American artist who lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area. Born in the New England industrial town of Bridgeport, CT., she moved to California in 1963 to attend college at age 16, discovered the vastness, wildness and ruggedness of the West Coast, and "found her calling" so to speak. She studied art, design and art history, formally and in private studios. She was awarded a full work scholarship to the Aspen Artists and Writers school in 1966, and received a BA in studio art from Mills College in CA. in 1967. Lengyel received her first commission for an oil painting of the Rolling Stones from a college classmate in 1965 and since then has completed numerous sculpture and painting commissions for public and private sites, and has received many awards. She operated a gallery representing regional artists and artisans in the historic village of Mendocino on the Northern California coast in the early days. In 1972 she attended Stephen Daly's month-long bronze, aluminum and iron foundry workshop at Humboldt State University where she met Thomas Marsh, Jon Battenberg and other noted sculptors. With community contributions of labor, rusted discarded foundry parts, tin and bricks salvaged from a defunct lumber mill, she built a lost wax bronze foundry in an open-air lean-to next to her first studio. She relocated her studio to the Bay Area in 1979, accepting painting and sculpture commissions and design work.

"One day, larger than life, Anargyros turned up at my gallery and visited my woodsy studio. He advised me that an artist could not do both successfully, cast bronze and create. Respectful of my ambitions and situation, he sympathetically offered me an unpaid apprenticeship to study with him in his Pacific Heights studio on Clay Street in San Francisco. It took me 6 years to arrange relocation but I eventually became a sculptor's helper, gaining invaluable experience for opening my own studio. This was master sculptor and Bohemian Club darling, Spero Anargyros, who carved the granite seal of the city of San Francisco for the Hall of Justice and was hired to restore the colossal figures atop the Palace of Fine Arts and sculpture on top of the column at Union Square. "

Lengyel's work has been shown at the Triton Museum, Mills College Art Museum, M. Thacher Gallery of the University of San Francisco, Merced College, College of Marin, SOMARTS, San Francisco Art Commission Gallery. Her work is in private and corporate collections in the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, Ireland.

She accepts commissions for paintings, sculptures and portraits and is an old school independent. She works exclusively in fine art mediums but is prone to experimenting with sculpting materials and mixing the unlikely. Her ideas and concepts are expressed through modern realist, symbolist and expressionist styles. Her early influences were American and European modernists, surrealists and expressionists including Picasso, Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti, and Salvador Dali. She generally works in series of related mediums and subjects to a conclusion or resolution, or until a concept is exhausted. She strongly believes that the true artist is obligated to master the craft and practice of fine art and have working knowledge of art history, aesthetic theories current and historic art. Her approaches are a balance of that which is rendered from the external and perceived, and that which is rendered from internal responses and images. A keen observer of the environment and natural world, Lengyel both draws from an internal world and reflects back what is seen. "

SELECTED 1983-2003 PROJECTS AND COMMISSIONS: 1995-2001 experimental monotypes from the human body with performance works & poetry: bas-relief sculptures for Harrah's Hotel Resort and Casino, Stateline, NV; functional bronze sculptures for the Nature Company (Discovery Stores); sculpture for Annabel Candy Co.; bronze commemorative plaque of Audrey Penn Rodgers, Dolores Heights Park, City of San Francisco art collection, high relief portrait of California poet Herman Berlandt for the National Poetry Association; Oils & bronzes for private collections. 2003 Merit Award " sculpture & 2005 BEST of SHOW, Bon Appetit juried exhibit, Artisan's Gallery, Mill Valley, CA; 2005 Marin Municipal Water District Annual Report cover art award. Her work was recently featured in these publications: MMWD 2005 report; Marin Center 2007 winter magazine; 2006 Green Farms Academy quarterly Magazine.

Community service: Co-founder of Fairfax Fine Art league, 1980. Mills College Alumnae Club of Marin President, 1978 " 1990. Board member of California Society of Printmakers 1997-2004 as exhibit director, vice president, President, organizing and installing printmaking shows in colleges, universities and museums and writing for its printmaking publications. She taught drawing and etching to children and adults, conducted sculpture technique workshops; Founded THE BREAST PROJECT: An Artist comments on an American Obsession, 1995; 1995-2001 produced 19 performance works and print demonstrations; 2004 monotype demonstration at CFA Gallery, San Anselmo during the Painterly Print Exhibit; 2006 hosted a print workshop for survivors of Breast Cancer Action Network.

EDUCATION: BA in Art, Mills College, Oakland, CA. Early studies in painting, drawing, bronze casting, sculpture, printmaking, art history with Modernist and minimalist artists Ralph Ducasse, Edwin Sundet, Rafael Canogar, Alfred Neumeyer, Edith Caldwell, Carl Belz: Aspen Artists and Writers School, Aspen, CO; Stanford University, painting with Ivan Majdrakoff; California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA; Academy of Art College, San Francisco, Illustrators Elaine Brady & Howard Brody, painters Francis Habberman and Paul Pratchenko; Humbolt State University Foundry, Arcata, CA, lost wax bronze and aluminum casting with Stephen Daly; Fort Mason Printmakers, City College, San Francisco and private studios.

BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES: California Art Revue (American References); Who's Who of International Women (International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England); Who's Who of Intellectuals (International Biographical Centre); Davenport's, Who's Who of American Women; & other biographies.