Lauren Purje

Lauren Purje is a cartoonist, which I recognize is not often seen as 'high art'. She studied art in college, but now is dedicated to comics and works for Hyperallergic, an art newsletter and website.

Purje got a painting degree at Ohio University. she says that she stumbled into comics - she originally was making 'fine art' paintings, but they begin to incorporate the cartoons. She showed several works that involved painted scenery with her cartoonish figures interacting with their surroundings, making a cool juxtaposition of these two fields of art.

Purje moved into just doing comics and not as much painting as a byproduct of her surroundings. It was easier to do drawing than painting in her small apartment with many roommates, and much easier to store drawings than paintings as well. In college, she worked on her first major comic project which was a 90 page comic translation of the play, "Waiting for Godot". She felt very connected to the characters and continued to make comic strips with them, mainly just for herself and her friends. It didn't feel as relevant after she finished college.

When asked why she likes comics as an art form, Purje stated that comics are straight to the point, rather than conceptually open ended like paintings. Keeping in line with the theme of immediacy,  Purje said that she edits down her comics a lot, trying to use as few words and as few panels as possible. I think this is a cool contrast to painting, which often uses a lot of details to make a point.

I incorporate text into my paintings a lot, so it was cool hearing how writing plays a part into her work. She says writing makes it very easy to convey an idea, which I agree with and appreciate, and that neither image or text should work by themselves - they should only be complete when working together.

Purje feels that her work is more honest when looking naive. Her comic drawing style is very cartoon and simple, but because it can be done so fast with so few details, it feels more honest to her. I loved that theme. She said comics are also good for trying to connect with people like her.

Watch the Lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vR_531oVks