Written by: Saige Sufrin

The life of Lauren Beck has always beamed with creativity and curiosity. During the formative years of Lauren’s childhood, she was raised in a home that strongly encouraged artistic development. With her father being a photographer and her mother a teaching speech therapist, both parents identified Lauren’s deep appreciation for art early on. With this, they nurtured her creative gifts by supplying her with art supplies and class opportunities. Once in elementary school, Lauren was swept up in admiration of the intricate, hand-drawn animation style of Disney films from the turn of the century, and the unique imagery of children’s author Jan Brett. These whimsical worlds and stories made her wonder if being an animator was a career she wanted to pursue as an adult. Eventually, she pieced together that animating wasn’t what really intrigued her the most, and what did was storyboarding and illustration. As Lauren continued to evolve with her craft, the thrill of learning became an omnipresent force in her life. Eventually, so much so that she would graduate from Kutztown University with an Arts Education degree. This passion for education stemmed from the power of human connection through creativity.

Lauren can be found exploring this notion at the Banana Factory where she brings her positivity to teaching in the classroom. As an artist-in residence at the Banana Factory, Lauren has been focused on plugging away at her latest project, a mural reflecting the illustrations of the poster art she created for this years’ 41st Musikfest. When not working on the mural, Lauren has been developing summer camp material around illustration and animation. With this upcoming camp project, she also balances her time getting ready to teach afterschool programming with ArtSmart and a Musikfest specific poster design class for Teen Takeover. Although Lauren is quite occupied, balancing her roles as a mom, a wife, an educator, friend and artist, I had the pleasure of diving into her world to talk about the Musikfest poster artwork process. This creative operation involved her most recent discovery of the power of gouache, as she used it to maintain painterly strokes that would have the ability to be transferred digitally without losing the physical look of paint. Through this process, Lauren would paint, transfer the image to her iPad in the app Procreate and go back and forth through this process countless times until she felt her vision was accurately represented.

When asked about her vision, Lauren said, “I wanted to make something that the community could resonate with, but also that felt like me.”

She told me she listened to a ton of music from Icelandic post rock group Sigur Rós during this process, and it checked out. Both Lauren’s art and Sigur Rós’ music have complex layers of comforting whimsy within their works; no wonder the music paired so well to her creative journey. Each section of her poster is thoughtfully layered in a way that
animates her forms with each paint stroke, bringing the viewer a powerful sense of comfort.

Reflecting on how she got to this result, Lauren shared stories about how her curiosity of space had impacted this artwork. At home, she and her children sit together outdoors to gaze at the stars frequently; however, in a recent trip to Iceland with her husband, Lauren saw the Northern Lights in person. This moment was especially moving as she felt compelled to express the unexplainable emotions this amazing sight evoked. Next time you gaze at this year’s Musikfest poster, know that you will be met by the warm embrace of Lauren’s comforting moon character as the constellations dance around the City of Bethlehem.

No matter where you might be, we all share the beauty of experiencing the same night sky as it evolves into different forms. With Lauren’s love for learning and connecting with the community through art education, she aims to share her passion for education further this year. She hopes to offer more opportunities for people to learn beside her through illustration, animation and poster design classes as the Banana Factory prepares to transform into the new Cultural Center.

Click here for Lauren’s upcoming art classes…

…And enjoy a playlist of her favorite music!