Born in Billings, Montana; raised there and in Arizona, Laurie is a product of America's west. It is in the wide open with a full view of the horizon and under a nightime spray of stars that she is at home. However, her quest for adventure – and a career in art, led her to Los Angeles many years ago. There, she soon was working in the entertainment industry as a scenic artist and muralist - one of the first women to work in that end of “the business”. The job required painting sometimes huge backdrops and other art pieces for television, theater, theme park and movie productions. Laurie also did matte paintings for several childrens animated movies, traveled with the Ice Follies, worked in Las Vegas and Reno on shows for the Reno MGM Grand; and on location around the country with different movie and theme park companies. She worked for Disney doing murals and attraction backdrops for the Disney Parks world wide. Laurie also went on to do some set design and illustration for several theme park design groups. Working as an artist in the industry for those eleven years was like being a kid who never had to grow up. Laurie loved the work and had her sights set on becoming an illustrator there, but LA never felt like home to her. Two years before she left California, she bought a house in Soledad Canyon north of the city – sharing a canyon hilltop with Steve Martin’s Working Wildlife (animal actors). Tippy Hedron’s Shambala Reserve occupied  the river canyon below. While she was there, Laurie reveled in life surrounded by wild animals and her experiences with the animals and trainers. She has many unusual stories to tell of that time! Waking up in the morning was not by alarm clock, but instead by the melodic crescendo of wild animals awakening at first light – first the cougars huffing, then the lions roaring and the wolves howling. She began to understand that home for her meant a more primal place than Los Angeles, CA. One snowy January, while attending a painting wokshop at a dude ranch near Augusta, MT., Laurie and soon to be husband Tom fell in love with the area and bought a beautiful property there on the rushing Dearborn River. The subsequent move to that majestic, wild mountain place, just an hour's horseback ride from the Scapegoat Wilderness, was something they never regretted. After returning to Montana in the early 1980’s, Laurie continued to do (sometimes in partnership with her husband), large murals and also a 30’ x 50’ wildlife diorama for a museum in West Virginia. She recently did the set design for the Lewis & Clark Ballet, “The Tremendious Journey” and the opera “Poia”, both Great Falls, MT. productions.   Upon her pilgramage home years ago, the beauty of the natural world near the Continnental Divide and the Scapegoat Wilderness was impossible to resist, and it was then that her attention turned to fine art. The earth spoke to her spirit, and from that connection, she knew she must paint what she was seeing.   Laurie now lives with her family on their ranch near Cascade, MT., in the shadow of Mt. Cecelia, and within the meandering Missouri River valley. It is rumored that famed artist Charlie Russell kept his horse in the barn there, and visited the ranch homesteaders regularly, as he too lived for a time in Cascade. Stories of the early settlers are numerous, and are yet visible in the nearby tipi rings, stone cairns and old wagon tracks that cross this high, prairie landscape. In the ‘90’s the ranch and surrounding countryside were the location for painting workshops hosted by Laurie and husband Tom for various Disney artists. Tom mentored the group – artists visiting once a month for week long plein air paint outs. This was a time of growth for Laurie artistically, as the hours spent painting outdoors and with some talented painters allowed for much new vision and the honing of painting skills.   The ranch environment now calls her attention to the circle of life, and our place within the circle. It is from this wellspring that she finds both personal and artistic inspiration. As a fine artist, Laurie especially enjoys painting plein air landscapes for the humbling lessons they teach, and the interaction between animals or people and their environment. Immersed in the culture of the still old west, Laurie finds herself especially attracted to the timeless stories of people living on the land and dealing with Mother Nature on a daily basis. Especially intriguing to her are the women's stories, and their life paths as they juggle the responsibilities and pleasures of their many and varied circumstances. Laurie is always captivated by the play of light on a subject, by its emotional pull and elementary graphic design. As her work evolves, she finds herself attracted to tonal studies and alternately saturated colors, as she feels they evoke for her a more emotional response than a very realistic interpretation of a subject might. In pushing color and tone to a sometimes unusual place, she is constantly exploring the nuances of color and light. Laurie is a founding member of Montana Painters Alliance, and a member of Oil Painters of America. She received the 2008 C. M. Russell Museum CEO Award given to one participating auction artist. Laurie was also chosen as one of the Top 100 for the 2008 Paint America 100 Competition, a national event. Her work can be found in regional shows and galleries, and in the collections of the C.M. Russell Museum, the USAF and Marty Skylar - past Executive VP of Walt Disney Imagineering, among others.