make it pop!

What do you want to be when you grow up? If you’d asked artist Lauren Leigh Henson this question
when she was 10, 20, 25, 30 or 35, you would have gotten a few different answers. None of those
answers would have been anything short of creative and fun.
With each canvas, Lauren Leigh dives into her
subjects’ personality to draw out their best. The research can include a trip to Olive Garden to research a random celebrity obsession (google Post Malone and Olive Garden to see for yourself) or weeks of listening to these icons’ music. What comes through in each canvas is her love of the process and genuine affection for these fabulously complicated people.
Lauren Leigh lives in Tulsa with her husband, Trevor and two daughters. She spent her early career
flexing her creativity as a piano teacher, event planner, interior designer and graphic designer all while being a hands-on, stay-at-home mom.

“I just want to make beautiful things”

— Lauren

ARTIST STATEMENT

Historians use the art of written words to tell stories of the past. Artists use physical art itself. As someone who struggles to articulate words, I use my art to show my observations and understandings of icons and their profound impact on history and culture. How their words, songs, movies, poems, and quotes speak to the plight of human existence.

Often mistaken for screen prints, the portraits themselves, always shown in black and white, are hand painted. I found I couldn’t attain the detail I desired through more common methods. Painting by hand gives me more control to manipulate details.

Each piece’s background varies between two studies of the icon. One look focuses on the color aura of the icon. The other is a collaged study on the icon, telling stories about the person through mixed media applications laid out in a patchwork composition surrounding the portrait.