Andy Truscott speaks with Lauren E. Peters, a 2023 Established Individual Artist Fellow and well known painter in Delaware. Lauren E. Peters believes that “all clothing is a costume. We are costuming ourselves daily in the roles we play for those around us.” This belief is the basic tenet of her artistic practice. Fighting the urge to hide, Peters attires herself in a variety of clothing to “add and subtract layers of meaning.” She then creates source photos on which to base her paintings, works that question, probe, and interpret the roles of women in society. Peters grew up in Wilmington, one of three children, and she spent a lot of time “playing dress-up. [She] would put on plays in a neighbor’s basement theater.” She has also worked as a theatrical costumer, something that was “a good step (in hindsight) to what I’m doing now.” Her favorite painting as a child was Jamie Wyeth’s Portrait of a Pig, and she was drawn to the Impressionists as a teen. But “finding [the contemporary works of] Cindy Sherman and Jenny Saville was huge.”  Peters also has always liked the art of Andy Warhol, with its “vulnerability juxtaposed against such glamorous, larger-than-life artworks.”

For those who have dined locally at Wilma’s on Wilmington’s Market Street, will see one of Peters’ pieces above the bar.

Learn more about Lauren at her artist profile here: https://arts.delaware.gov/iafrecipients/2023_iafs/lauren-e-peters/ or visit her website at www.laurenepeters.com.