Hi, I’m Laura.

I’m an activist, artist, scholar, educator and consultant with a transdisciplinary research-based art practice living on unceded lands of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Cowlitz bands of the Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla and many other Tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River.

My practice uses performance art, dance, media production, installation, activism, collaboration, architecture, and writing, and extends across social / political borders, including work within LGBTQ2S+ communities in the US and Mexico. My research centers social vulnerability to climate change, gender and environment, intersectionality, and disasters through an eco-feminist lens. I am a published member of the collective EnJust Network for enviornmental justices, Kiel Germany, and the American Association of Geographers.

In 2020 and again in 2021-2023 I was an artist / researcher in residence with CIESAS Noreste, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social, a public research center for Social Anthropolgy based in Monterrey Mexico. 

During the 2021-23 residency, I produced two new works centering what I was living, observing, and thinking about:

Mujeres del agua: Manifiesto colectivo. This project centers the lived experience and wisdom of female / trans identified participants affected by the water crisis and asks: What do female / trans identified people know? What do female / trans identified people say? What is the relation between female / trans identified people and water? The goal is to spark a conversation that places female / trans identified participants at the center, as the authors of their own experiences that extends beyond institutions to emphasize water as an entity with rights that requires legal guardians to prevent its exploitation.

Poesia para el bien común. (en: Poetry of the Commons) is a project that incorporates art, activism and technology in order to make visible the concerns and desires as stated by all citizens of Monterrey Mexico.

Any social topic is a channel for citizen participation to engage via the dedicated web site. The participant’s uploaded information is then either projected on buildings, accessed through monitors, events, and conference presentations, or transmitted to reader boards located at key sites around Monterrey, thus creating a collective poetry from anonymous participants.

As an educator, I lead classes and workshops that center ethics and activism as social art practice. These workshops, classes, and gatherings can include artists, activists, designers, educators, concerned citizens, life long learners, and others.

Examples of classes include:

Ethics of Community Engagement in Social Art Practice - Artes del Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey Mexico, a preeminent Latin American University of Art and Design.

Art as Resistance in Contemporary Culture - Escula Adolfo Prieto I CONARTE, Monterrey Mexico, a renovated steel mill that is now several contemporary exhibition and studio spaces for international, national artists and students.

In the United States, I have been presented at Open Engagement, Queens Museum, Queens NY; ISEA, Albuquerque NM; Time Mutations, Buffalo, NY; On the Boards, Seattle WA; Hugo House, Seattle WA; TBA Festival for Portland Institute on Contemporary Art, Portland OR; The Southern Theater, Minneapolis MN, and ODC, San Francisco, through the SCUBA National Touring Network for Dance.

Internationally, I have been presented at DOCUMENTA 13, Kassel Germany; Time Mutations, Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar Germany; The Guapamacátaro Center for Art and Ecology, Michoacan Mexico; NoAutomatico, Monterrey Mexico; LAB Nuevo Leon, Monterrey Mexico; Artes del Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey Mexico, Adolfo Prieto, Monterrey Mexico.

Project support includes Femsa, CONARTE, Lab NL, Escuela Adolfo Prieto, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Technē Institute for Arts and Emerging Technologies, Department of Media Study University at Buffalo, the McAloon Conference Grant, Artist Trust (2 Fellowships for Choreography and a GAP Grant), the Seattle Mayors Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, 4 Culture, Art Patch, Meet the Composer, West Sound Arts Council, the Arizona State Arts Commission.