Lanecia Rouse Tinsley is an abstract artist based in Houston, TX. Her portfolio includes a range of work in photography, painting, teaching, writing, and speaking. She is the owner and creator of LAR Art Studio. Lanecia creates out of a desire to make the invisible landscapes within and the human condition known; using texture and form + color to speak to life upon various surfaces in ways words cannot. Fascinated by history + story, her work also explores the "negative spaces" in life. Those times of ambiguity + uncertainty, silence + mystery through subtle textures, color, markings + layers to create a history within each piece.
In addition to her work through LAR Art Studio, Lanecia contracts work with local + national organizations to do commission works, host art making experiences, consulting + more. She works with projectCURATE as Co-Spiritual Director and Consultant for the Arts; and is Co-founder/Co-Creative Director of ImagiNoir Group, an international alliance and think-tank of Black activists, artists, writers, scholars and educators.
Lanecia is a graduate of Duke University Divinity School (MDiv) and a graduate of Wofford College (BA in Sociology).
Photo of Lanecia studying the work of Sam Gilliam
What Does Black History Month Mean To You This Year?
This year it offers me the opportunity to work and think deeply about the meaning of Black life, and its significant contributions to this world and country in new ways. As an artist, I'm coming to realize more and more the contingent nature of portraying Black life; about how it needs to be shared and nuance ever so slightly as we reflect on what it means to be Black and modern. I will continue this year to push for how this is sometimes ambiguous and complex through my abstract works.
Where Are You Finding Inspiration To Create This Year?
In 2019, I will continue to find inspiration from the world around me as I move around Houston; as well as, when I travel. I'm drawn to the organic textures + colors I encounter in the world around me that point to the passage of time in a place.
I will also continue in my studies of Black American abstract artists like Alma Thomas, Ed Clark, Jack Whitten, Sam Gilliam, and others who continue to help me find a home + voice within abstraction. I'm reading the poetic works of Alice Walker this year, Notes from the Woodshed by Jack Whitten and the Collected Essays of James Baldwin.
To Learn More About Lanecia Visit:
Website: larartphotography.com
Instagram: @larartstudio