Lifetime in the clouds

Retrospective looks back of LU alum’s artistic career

Porcelain clouds create a story in the same way the Sandi Laurette’s collection of artworks create a life.

The exhibition “Retrospective: 42 Years at The Art Studio, Inc.” guides the viewer through Laurette’s journey as an artist and tenant at the non-profit arts space. The exhibition will be on display until Feb. 27.

Laurette said the retrospective caused her to think about the meaning of life.

“As I was kind of daydreaming this morning, I was thinking about how your life path is poetic,” she said. “No matter what your path is, sometimes it’s rhyme-ish, sometimes it’s a haiku and very short, or sometimes it’s Dante’s ‘Inferno.’ It’s all poetic, not all happy, not all beautiful, but very poetic. I think mine was very poetic.”

Laurette said that the bamboo and trees outside of her home provoke thoughts of her life as a journey. 

“We sleep on a sleeping porch,” she said. “I could see on this side there was bamboo with its lovely fluttering leaves in the early morning breeze, and on the other side are the silent trees, the pecans, and everything else, just the ones without the leaves. So, you had a choice. You could roll this way or that way, and I considered a lot of this. 

“It’s been a good journey, because in my life, I have gotten to travel and learn.”

Laurette lived in Japan for a year while her husband, Richard, was stationed there in the Navy.

“That was probably as wonderful as anything could be for me,” she said. “It has a culture that Americans have trouble dealing with, because it has rules that everybody knows.”

As a “gaijin” — an outsider, Laurette said she didn’t have to follow the same rules that women had to follow in Japan. 

“I was openly defying the tradition and such during the time I was there,” she said.

A Michigan native, Laurette has lived in Beaumont since the 1970s. She has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Lamar University alongside an art education degree from Western Michigan University.

With 58 years in the arts, Laurette has advice for those just starting out on their journey.

“Be aware that it’s a tough life,” she said. “There are very few stars in the art world.”

She also noted one of her biggest creative challenges has been finding the time to make art while earning a living.

“I always thought I’d get a part-time job, but that didn’t work out,” Laurette said. “I got a supervisory job every time I turned around. That’s not a thing that is good for four hours and you get to go home.”

Laurette joined The Art Studio as its first tenant when it was located on the corner of Milam and Neches. When the organization moved to the old White House department store building downtown she moved with it, before ending up at its current location at 720 Franklin St.

She said she feels lucky to have found partners at The Studio most of the time to motivate her to make art even when she was tired after working all day. 

“The first was Noel Sargeant, who now lives in Canada,” Laurette said. “My best partner was Suzanne Garrett. We encountered each other working side by side in the White House, I think around 1989.” 

Garrett and Laurette would go to The Studio in the evenings after work.

“You leave work at five, six, seven o’clock at night,” she said. “You close the work you’re doing. You head for your car and you get home and make some dinner, shove some dinner down your face. Eat quickly and jump into the car after you throw off the work clothes because you certainly don’t need to wear them to wedge clay in or fire up a kiln, or all kinds of things that destroy clothes. And so you’re off until 10, 11, 12 o’clock at night.

“We did it three days a week, and (Suzanne) was with me for most of these years. She probably did close to 20 years with me like that.”

The retrospective includes work made from various materials, including cast iron, porcelain and clay. Over the years, she has moved from one idea to another seamlessly. One of her favorite themes involve clouds which she creates in a variety of media.

Laurette said she encourages people to look for the shifts in her work when looking at the works and she is happy to answer questions about specific pieces and her artistic life in general.

“It is clouds and figures and landscapes and such,” she said. “And if you don’t understand that, that’s OK — I have a story that matches that.”

For more, visit artstudio.org.