About the Artist

Laurie McCarriar has photography in her blood. She spent many childhood hours rifling through her father’s photo albums and carousel trays full of slides of family vacations and world travel, and along the way discovered that her great-great grandfather, James McCarriar, was a photographer in Baltimore during the Civil War.

Laurie has worked in museum research, exhibit production and design, digital photo restoration, and fine art printing during her 30-year career in the arts. Relocated from her home in Virginia’s Piedmont to the mountains of North Carolina, Laurie lives and works in the River Arts District of Asheville, NC.

Statement
I often aim my camera down toward the earth, discovering interesting textures, patterns and colors that many people overlook. How many times do you walk down the same path and never see the things beneath your feet? Shifting perspectives can uncover the beauty in some leaves in the mud, or the murk below the surface of the water. A closer look at arrangements of form and color in nature begins to blur the line between representational photography and abstract composition.

Getting away into nature with or without a camera is heaven to me. Connecting with the wild spaces for an hour or a day. Doing that allows me to come back home and see everything more clearly. A small puddle that I walk by on my way to the coffee shop can contain the world if I remember to stop and look.

Selected Exhibitions
2008: “A Portrait of Nature,” solo exhibit, Holy Ground, Asheville, NC
          “The Moving Image,” Invitational exhibit, Chase Gallery, NC Stage, Asheville, NC
          “Making the Connection,” Invitational exhibit, Chase Gallery, NC Stage, Asheville, NC
2006 - present: Member of the River District Artists in Asheville, NC, participating in the
bi-annual River Arts District Studio Strolls in June and November.
2006-2007: Sandbridge hammered dulcimer master class. Photographic art & notecard exhibit during the week-ending concerts to raise money for the Back Bay Restoration Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.
2006: 6th Annual Grace Center Juried Fine Art Exhibition, Fletcher, NC

Laurie’s studio in Asheville's River Arts District is open every Friday
& most Saturdays from 10-5