About

 

Laura Wolf, Artist

Artist Statement

I am an elementary art teacher and freelance artist living in Ellicott City. My students’ enthusiasm for the natural world has helped to revitalize my own. Typically, I draw inspiration from photographs I’ve taken at various parks, refuges, gardens, and zoos. When I paint, I am striving to capture the unique personality of each creature; some are beautiful, some are strange, and some are beautifully strange. Many artists choose to anthropomorphize animals, but I most enjoy the peculiarities that make them so distinct from humans. In the last nine years I’ve become an impassioned birdwatcher, and my painting has shifted to reflect that focus.

I have several distinct bodies of work: acrylics on wood or canvas, digital illustrations, and gouache with ink details on paper. My acrylics are more traditional and feature fully developed backgrounds with looser brush strokes. The gouache and ink paintings are sparser and illustrate jokes and pop culture references. I’ve also branched into ink drawings and digital illustration. In any mode, my aim is to be bold and gutsy as an artist- in brushwork, composition, texture, and color. I am a very joyful person, so I hope to create joyful art.

Accomplishments

  • Bachelor’s and Master’s in Art Education from Towson University

  • 18 years teaching elementary art in Maryland

  • 11 years mentoring student teachers from Maryland Institute College of Art

  • 9 years teaching Kids on Campus art classes at Howard Community College

  • 3 years leading nature art projects and helping with Baltimore Youth Birding Week

  • 2025 Artist, Great Texas Birding Classic

  • 2025 mentor, American Birding Association Young Birder of the Year Program

  • Volunteer Bird Walk leader, Howard County Bird Club and Patuxent Research Refuge

  • 2025 Artist, Patuxent Research Refuge Logo

  • 2025 Designer and Art Supervisor, My Merry-Land collaborative picture book

  • Winner, 2024 convention pin design for the Maryland Ornithological Society

  • 2019 Artist in Residence, Howard County Library, Miller Branch

  • Nominee, 2019 Howie Teaching Award

Past places and events where my work was displayed: Columbia Art Center, Found Studio Baltimore, Wild Birds Unlimited Columbia and Timonium, Cape May Fall Festival, American Birding Expo, Space Coast Birding Festival, Annapolis First Sunday Arts Festival, Art in the Park, Bazaart at the American Visionary Art Museum, Frederick Festival of the Arts, Columbia Festival of the Arts, Artists’ Gallery, Howard County Art Center, Delaplaine Art Center, HIVE Artspace York