Hello! I’m Freya. My body is in melbourne where I create and live everyday. My art practice encompasses a variety of both the psychical act of painting to the digital realm of illustrating and motion design. Combining bold colours and characters I think my work intersects somewhere between cute and transportive, hopefully to somewhere new and exciting.
What is your creative process?
Freya Lauersen, ‘Think of the plane as a floating train and you won’t get sick’ Part I, 2020
Routine for me has always been a bit of a work in progress. When starting a new piece I will often go to my scribbles and sketches first, focussing on several ideas at a time. Working full time at a cafe, my notebook is sporadically stuffed with “half ideas”mostly drawn over scrap paper bags. Navigating through these, I try to shrink or mould it into what originally popped into my head. A big part of my creative process is trying to work with more spontaneity in mind – letting go of my need for control. Just like my scribbles may make not much sense to someone else, I don’t want my work to have a fixed and fine tuned meaning either. I'm more interested in conveying meaning through the feeling or atmosphere of an environment.
Freya Lauersen, ‘Think of the plane as a floating train and you won’t get sick’ Part II, 2020
How was it to venture into art making post studying?
Besides the complete whirlwind that swindled us all back in March last year, I found that really grounded or allowed me to explore my own creative practices. Locked down at my parents place in Gippsland for a few months, time felt funny. As a student I struggled a lot with that, constantly feeling like my artworks were incomplete and tied to the turns of a deadline axis. My sister commissioned me to make a painting for her new house with no constraints, time, colour or anything.
Freya Lauersen, ‘Shapes Talking’, 2020
Freya Lauersen, ‘Her Body, Her Choice’ from Esperanto Magazine, 2020
It wasn’t until I had built myself a home studio and began painting that I realised how much pressure I had previously put on myself. I’ve always been conflicted between the concept of fine art and something more commercial or aesthetic-leaning. Since graduating I have learned to create and “fail” more by practicing art in my own time but also working with other peoples ideas to find intersections with the personal and so-called design “aesthetic”.
Freya Lauersen, ‘Patchwork Mountains’ Parts I & II, 2020
What is next for you?
I think something I’m working towards is bridging the gap between working to pay rent in combo with the hustle of creating my art. The reality of balancing the two often comes down to learning how to maintain that drive of creating every day whilst feeling #financially secure. I’ve found one of the best ways to keep that momentum going is collaborating with friends, doing commissions or just having a creative space which you can pour your mess onto. I also really want to get more into motion design, I find it to be a great way to tell stories in an abstract way in contrast with the traditional 2D experience of viewing a painting. So many things!
Freya Lauersen, ‘Escape the Chryalis’, 2020
Freya Lauersen, ‘Two tings’ Part I, 2020
Where can viewers see more of your work?
I finally became a hacker girl and made my own website (freyalauersen.com) after a few months in the matrix. My instagram (@doing_tings) is another, probably more up to date, place you can find what I’m doing or working on there!
Freya Lauersen, ‘Two tings’ Part II, 2020