*While the fact that Laura Epler’s art does not fit into a specific category may seem a weakness, it is actually the fearless strength and breadth of genius.  The paintings do not need categorization; they are beyond that need in both their emotional content and their technical ability.

 

The paintings move back and forth from hints of subject matter to abstraction, from didactic to spiritual. One senses that she started where Rothko and Pollock ended, infusing them with post-modernist concerns of journalizing, mysticism and feminism.

 

The results are paintings, which can be read only on a solitary level, requiring intelligence and intuition.  Gazing into the paintings, almost falling into them, one feels the layers of paint symbolic of expression and discovery.  Then, upon realizing the connectedness of it all-essentially life and art-the satisfaction arrives.

 

Watching these paintings evolve, I have seen the artist take a lifetime of self-exploration and translate it onto canvas.  The work continues to amaze me as it reveals painterly and spiritual sensations far beyond the limits of expectations.

 

*Don Lambert is a freelance writer and curator.  His work has appeared in the Saturday Review, American Artist and dozens of national and regional publications.  Exhibits he has curated have been in nearly 400 art museums, art centers and libraries across the country, including the National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C.