Growing up, my first love was ice skating. I savored the feeling of gracefully flowing to music while dancing, jumping, and spinning on ice. Beautiful sparkling designs were formed as a result of my relationship with the surface. It was as if every movement painted a masterpiece, a magical, captivating dance. But life has a funny way of throwing unexpected challenges our way, and life was about to change. My mother became very ill and priorities shifted. My dreams of skating were put on hold. The heartache of her illness and leaving my first love was immense but I found solace in my artistic abilities.

As a child, I was always drawn to the world of art. I spent hours sketching and painting, allowing my imagination to run wild on the canvas. But driven by a deep sense of compassion, I became a registered nurse working in an intense level 1 trauma center. This environment demanded my utmost focus and dedication. It was amidst the chaos that my artistic inspiration truly ignited.

Surrounded by the intensity of life and death, I felt a deep longing to express myself artistically. So, I began to merge my two passions—skating and art. I found solace and inspiration in the beauty that surrounded me. It became a meditative, transformative outlet. With each stroke, it allowed me to escape the stresses of a demanding job and recreate movements I once made on ice, capturing the essence of that magical feeling. Each stroke and movement brought me closer to a state of inner peace.

Drawing inspiration from the spirit and beauty of nature, I studied it’s patterns formed by the transformative power of water as it shaped the earth and transported pieces of land to the canvas. The paintings revealed themselves as if I were skating over the surface with long, compassionate strokes. They seemed to come alive in the midst of an intimate conversation with the pigments, coaxed to show their hidden depths. Exciting dialogues resulted while allowing exploration into imagery that encouraged free-flowing movement. This welcomed promising accidents that invited unplanned but chosen harmonies. My art became a reflection of my own personal growth and a testament to the healing, transformative powers of creativity.

Now I continue to be compelled to intertwine lines weaving in and out of windows, revealing multiple patterns. The surface of much of my work is comprised of several layers of imagery. The ground preparation is intuitively and aggressively thrown on the canvas with various sizes of textures, brush strokes, or several different types of material application. I may simultaneously grind charcoal, pastels, graphite, or posca, combining painting and writing. This achieves the visual effects of highlighted and contrasting textures that play off the backgrounds of patterns. In this complex layering, it is unknown how many patterns will be laid down as one move initiates another. The power of this improvisation yields a stating and restating that evolves into the coming and going of imagery, each a new perceptual result. As several consecutive layers are in progress, various shapes may be separated and united by lines both appearing and disappearing simultaneously, as if coexisting in parallel veils. Their existence is one we can touch and perhaps one we can only sense.

My art is a reflection of my journey—the resilience and perseverance to stand in the face of adversity, the beauty I discover in unexpected places, and the depth of my emotions. These paintings tell the story of love, loss, and the indomitable spirit that resides in all of us. Each piece is a testament to the power of following one’s passion, even when life takes unexpected turns.

But the journey doesn’t stop there. I realize my art has the potential to touch lives and make a difference. With a compassionate heart, I now use my skills to help others heal and transform. I offer breast cancer survivors and people living with all types of scars a unique form of support. I create intricate camouflage and 3-D tattoos specifically designed to help people reclaim their bodies and embrace their scars as symbols of strength and resilience. Through my art, these individuals are empowered to embrace new beginnings in their journey of healing.

My “Why” is clear. I want to share the meditative and transformative powers of art with the world. My art is a vessel for healing, a source of inspiration, and a reminder that beauty can emerge from even the most challenging circumstances. So I continue to create, explore, and touch lives through my art. With every brushstroke, I invite others to embark on their own transformative journey, reminding them that art has the power to heal, transform, and ignite the spark of hope within their souls.

Christine Laubach