Artist Profile: Lorra Kurtz - Family Life Publications

Mixed-Media Artist: The Whole Ball of Wax

By Brandi Price

Lorra Kurtz was originally planted in Texas, but lucky for us, shes bloomed in Georgia. After a career in business, Lorra transitioned into the artistic world by interior design. At ADAC, a design center, Lorra channeled her creativity into high-end furniture showrooms.

After having twin sons, Lorra plunged deeper into art out of necessity. She made handmade cards and scrapbooked, but she found her passion in painting classes. She soon found success submitting her work to juried art shows. Lorra is thankful for the combination of luck and hard work that has enabled her to do what makes her soul happy. Her tranquil and whimsical mixed-media pieces have found homes with collectors in the southeast.

Once Lorra began taking painting classes, she never stopped. She found that she preferred acrylic painting because of its flexibility. At a local weekend workshop, Lorra fell in love with the ancient encaustic tradition of painting in wax. Encaustic was immediately intriguing with its layering ability and surprises. Lorra gathered her supplies, began reading and experimenting and continued engaging in workshops to build her knowledge. Lorras paintings now have a wonderful textural quality. In both acrylic and wax mediums, she incorporates many materials including papers, fabric, charcoal, India inks, oil pastels and pencils.

Lorras inspiration is expansive, but a recurrent theme in her work is the spirit of her father, which is revealed in the form of hummingbirds. At her parents retirement home on the lake, the porch housed several hummingbird feeders, which her father always kept full. Her first hummingbird painting was quickly sold at the juried show at Trinity Spotlight on Art.

After this, one of Lorras greatest artistic accomplishments was when Donna Krueger invited her to show her work at dk Gallery in Marietta. Lorras work also appears in High Country Arts and Antiques in Blue Ridge and in the dk2 Gallery in Homewood, Alabama. Currently, Lorra is preparing for a solo show in Richmond, Virginia, where she was invited for a two-month engagement.

Lorra advises artists to put themselves out there, experiment, and be open to the world around them for inspiration. She says, Were all responding to the environment were in. Art is a response to where we live, how we live, for today. Lorra believes in painting every day, taking inspirational workshops, having a social media platform and being part of a creative artist community in which to learn and grow. In addition to her home studio, she is an artist in residence at Fountainhead Art Space in Roswell, Georgia.

Brandi Price is a student in the MFA creative writing program at Reinhardt University.
770-720-5582. Reinhardt.edu/Graduate/MFA-CW/