Palm Desert’s Assemblage Artist, Lauretta Lowell, first became addicted to treasure hunting and collecting odd things at the young age of 7 years old, while living on military bases in Japan where her father was an Army Major. She would keep herself busy by collecting discards from other family’s trash containers (when they were relocated) and built sculptures and “tree forts”.
Growing up, her mother, a fashion designer and painter, was a great source of inspiration for Lauretta. She spent her high school and college years living on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii surfing, batiking and designing bathing suits. Her artistic sense was also influenced strongly by the beauty of the islands, and the many local superstitions.
Leaving the islands in 1976, Lauretta moved to Santa Barbara, California where she started a career in marketing and a family. She became interested in collecting unusual antiques and machine parts for her home, a converted horse stable on three acres. Her 28 year marketing career took her to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Peru, Paris, England, Wales, Tahiti, and Australia.
After the stress of her divorce, raising her two boys, and working 10 hour days, Lauretta had a stroke that took her short term memory, her ability to walk, talk, and write from her. After five years of physical therapy, she began visiting junk stores, antique stores, and warehouses again waking up her creative juices. She found that she was drawn to vintage items from the 1930s-1950s. Her sense of humor and her self-imposed art therapy helped her heal greatly as she began creating mixed media collages and assemblages.
In 2004 she moved to Palm Desert and in 2008 she started her business Whimsical Curiosities, showcasing her assemblage creations. Her assemblage sculptures, shrines, jewelry, mosaics are designed with the intention to capture your curiosity, make you smile and feel you are experiencing something you have never seen before.
Lauretta sells her work in local and coastal fine art festivals. She has been in galleries in Palm Springs, Fallbrook and Santa Barbara, California; Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, Michigan, and Seattle. You can see her work on her website at www.whimsicalcuriosities.com.
Galleries:
Art From Scrap Gallery – One Person Show – Santa Barbara, CA July-August 2011
Brandon Gallery – Jewelry Collection ~ Fallbrook, CA, September-December 2010
Brandon Gallery (Two Person Show with Richard Freund) – Fallbrook, CA, August-September 2010
Art & Soul Gallery - Bothell, Washington, 2009-2010
Metal Art Gallery 873 - Ivins, Utah, 2009
Heusso Gallery - Palm Springs, CA 2009
Wentworth Gallery - Indio, CA 2006-2008
Juried Fine Art Festivals:
La Jolla Festival of the Arts, La Jolla, CA - June 18-19, 2011
Art Under the Umbrellas, La Quinta, CA - 2009, 2010, 2011
Palm Springs Art Festival, Palm Springs, CA - 2011
Malibu Fine Art Festival - 2010
Hermosa Beach Art Festival - 2010
Calabasas Fine Art Festival - 2010
Brentwood 15th Annual Art Festival 2009
Non-Juried Shows:
Rancho Mirage Library, displaying assemblage art in two windows December-January, 2011
Art in the Hall, Rancho Mirage, CA – December 2010
Art Competitions:
Palm Springs 2010 Stoke Recovery Center’s 4th Annual Art Competition
You Can Tell a Book by Its Cover, Rancho Mirage Public Library, November-December , 2010
Palm Springs 2010 Annual Juried Art Show, “Reuse, Recycle, Rethink.” Won Commissioner’s Award for “Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.”
Palm Springs 2010 Stroke Recover Center’s 3rd Annual Art Competition. Won Honorable Mention for “Money to Burn.”
Home Design Stores:
La Quinta’s Old Town Antiques, Design and Consignment - La Quinta, CA 2010-2011
Lulu’s Home Accessories - La Quinta, CA 2010-2011
PK’s Place - Alden, Michigan, 2008-2009
Charity Involvement:
Whitewater Park Art Celebration and Benefit – April 10, 2011
Big Hearts for Little Hearts, fundraiser for children at Loma Linda Hospital 2011
Sun City Palm Desert Annual Hadassah Luncheon 2009-2010
Gilda’s Club (cancer research) 8th Annual Fashion Show and Boutique – 2009
Desert Arc, Judging Annual Art Shows and teaching art classes – 2007-2009
Member:
The International Society of Assemblage & Collage Artists
Education:
University of Hawaii – Art & Business
University of California Santa Barbara – Interior Design
Santa Barbara City College - Journalism
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