Video History Project

People

Vanessa Lauria

I've spent most of my life in upstate NY, growing up in Buffalo, attending Syracuse University and currently residing in Rochester. College afforded me an opportunity to observe a wide variety of art forms. Interested in surface pattern and textiles but wishing to explore more than the traditional folk usage of the medium, I majored in illustration. It wasn't until my junior year at school that I began to take the skills learned in the illustration program and shape a style for myself. I experimented using fibers as a medium, drawing with a needle and sewing machine, painting with the patterns and textures of fabric.

After being exposed to avant-garde cinema in the work of Maya Deren and Jan Svankmajer, I began to work on several animation projects. I try to find a simple scene or moment and exploring the details in that moment, adding detail and a lot of hidden treasures. The rotoscoping technique is very similar to building a drawing stitch by stitch. I am able to be in total control touching and changing every video frame by hand in a more simplified style. I enjoy being able to experiment with different styles and techniques in animation as much as choosing cross-stitch, embroidery or appliqué for illustration. Vanessa received a Finishing Funds 2006 award from the Experimental Television Center.

Cite this record

"Vanessa Lauria." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/vanessa-lauria.

Download RIS citation
Summary

Vanessa Lauria is an artist from upstate New York who grew up in Buffalo, attended Syracuse University and lives in Rochester; she majored in illustration. She experimented with fibers as a medium, drawing with a needle and sewing machine and painting with fabric patterns and textures, and after exposure to avant-garde cinema by Maya Deren and Jan Svankmajer she produced several animation projects. She uses rotoscoping to alter video frames by hand and works in cross-stitch, embroidery and appliqué; she received a Finishing Funds 2006 award from the Experimental Television Center.

Submit a change or correction

If unchecked, this will appear as a public note on the site immediately. Spam filters may delay publication, but all submissions are reviewed by staff.

Changes will be reviewed and integrated as time permits. For major changes, feel free to email [email protected].

Last modified 18 June 2011

Related records

  • Nadia Hironaka People

    Nadia Hironaka holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999) and a BFA from The University of the Arts (1997); her video and film work has been exhibited and screened at venues and festivals including the 14th Philadelphia Film Festival (April 7–20, 2005), Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin (2004) and Surface Tension at The Fabric Workshop and Museum (2003). She received awards and support including a 2004 Director's Choice at Black Maria, SOS and Leeway Foundation grants, and was Artist in Residence at FABRICA (2001). She has worked as Video Archivist at The Fabric Workshop and Museum (2000–present), taught video workshops and delivered lectures and juries.

  • Nina Katchadourian People

    Nina Katchadourian is a Brooklyn-based conceptual artist working in sculpture, video, photography and sound; her projects have included mending broken spiderwebs with sewing thread, creating a machine that listens to popping popcorn and decodes it using Morse Code into spoken language, and constructing a genealogical chart of people appearing on common grocery store products. She has taught at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design; she is represented in New York by Sara Meltzer gallery and in San Francisco by Catharine Clark gallery.

  • Melinda Barlow People

    Melinda Barlow is Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder; she joined CU in 1996 after teaching at New York University, the School of Visual Arts, and Queens College, City University of New York. She edited Mary Lucier: Art and Performance (2000, Johns Hopkins University Press) and is a film and video historian specializing in contemporary independent women film and videomakers; her articles have appeared in journals including Camera Obscura and Art Journal. She received the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Award and a CU Center for the Humanities and the Arts Fellowship in 2005; she founded the Leah Kelly Memorial Award and has a forthcoming book, Lost Objects of Desire (University of Minnesota Press).

  • Courtney Rile People

    Courtney Rile is an artist, curator and arts coordinator based in Syracuse, NY; her video art has been shown internationally and locally, including the first Syracuse International Film and Video Festival. In 2005 she curated the moving-images program Videohm at an upscale lounge and bar in Syracuse, presenting nearly 300 hours of international experimental film and video and VJ work; she also coordinated the exhibition Clement Greenberg In Syracuse: Then & Now at ThINC's Company Gallery that year. She is Gallery Coordinator at Delavan Art Gallery and holds an A.A. in TV/Radio/Film from Montgomery County Community College, PA, and a B.F.A. in Video Art from Syracuse University, NY.

  • Jennifer Schmidt People

    Jennifer Schmidt (b. 1975, Bedford, Indiana) is a multi-media artist based in Brooklyn, NY and Boston, MA who works in printed media and graphic design to create sculptural installations, video and screenprinted ephemera. She earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999) and BAs in Studio Art and Art History from the University of Delaware (1997). Her work has screened and been exhibited internationally, including Pulsar (Caracas) and Cinema-Scope (London and Miami); publications include Collezioni:Edge, Eleven Bulls, Big Red and Shiny and Drain Journal.

  • Meg Knowles People

    Meg Knowles is an internationally exhibited documentary and experimental video maker. She has a B.A. from Vassar College in Art History (1982), a Master's Degree from the University at Buffalo in Media Study and Art History (1994), and an MFA from Temple University in Film Video Arts. Venues that ha…