Laura Bundesen
Meet Laura
City: Huntington, Massachusetts
Preferred medium: Fiber art
About me: While I've been creating fiber art pieces since the 1970's, I began my art career in earnest in 2012 when I first began selling my work. In 2014 I made my first neuro art pieces and soon found myself specializing in only brain imagery. I now work full time as a neuro fiber artist.
About the artist:
'Better Together' is a fiber art piece that incorporates epilepsy awareness T-shirts, fabric, trim and hand embroidery stitched onto artist canvas and then stretched and painted. A detailed blog post and video on the making of this piece can be found on my blog.
What inspired you to create the art we have in our collection?
I'm fascinated by the brain in all its complexity - what we know and don't know about how it all works. M. Scott Perry, M.D., inspired this piece by sending me epilepsy awareness T-shirts that he had originally designed and used in annual efforts to promote awareness around epilepsy. The T-shirts became the jumping off point for all of the patterns, colors and images used. Learning more about epilepsy in the process of making the piece also inspired me to make something beautiful to honor the many people who live with epilepsy.
What is your connection to the neurosciences?
My connection was initially as a caregiver/support person for members of my immediate family who suffered from stroke, dementia, multiple sclerosis and mental illness. I also worked for many years as a sponsored research officer helping faculty at academic institutions find funding for their research – many of these faculty were neuroscientists. Several of them encouraged my neuroart career and my participation in the annual Society for Neuroscience conference.
What do you hope people feel, think, or learn from your art?
I want everyone to feel inspired by my art, whether they are a caregiver, patient, scientist or healthcare professional. I want people to see possibility and hope and find strength from the work. When viewing 'Better Together' I hope they will see the messages about the prevalence of epilepsy and the importance of everyone working together in concert to find treatments that work.
What does your art mean to you?
My art is a hopeful expression of healing. The more I work with brain imagery the more I learn about how our brains work and the more I can promote education that will help anyone dealing with a brain injury or illness.