Lala Gallery & Studio

Here at Lala Gallery we support local artists! 

Come and see our gallery, or browse though the images here at www.LalaGallery.com all works are for sale and available to the public, collectors and designers.

Interested in showing at the gallery?  Send 5-10 works to lalavinson@gmail.com to be considered for representation.

Zach Medler

Location: Portland, In

Education: BA in Religion from Wabash College, MA in Ceramics from Purdue University, Life in general

Philosophy: Live and respond. my work always reflects humanity

Description: I work in clay and paint mostly, but I'm not afraid to try new media and new ideas. I simply attempt to tell a story in my work.  I don't believe my existence or my work to be important, but rather, to be common. and in that pragmatism my hope is that  can capture a sense of humanity and the humility of existence.

Angela Vinson

Location: Lafayette, IN

Education: BFA in Ceramics from Herron School of Art, Post Graduate work at Purdue University, MA in Art Education from Indiana Wesleyan, and many workshops and conferences everywhere!

Philosophy: The work created is a direct reflection of where I am in the world responding to the stories of everyday.

Description: I work with printmaking methods to create wall sculptures and functional ceramic vessels.  A majority of the pottery I create are majolica glazed.  A process of glazing a white glaze over a red earthenware clay body.  The colors on the pottery are hand painted on top of the white opaque glaze. 

Location:  Valparaiso, IN

Education: BA Art Education and Fine Art, minor in Art History from Purdue University 2004; JD Candidate 2010, Valparaiso University

Philosophy: I am an artist and full time law student.

Creating is an adventure I get lost in.

I believe in enjoying life and making a difference.

I try not to overlook the small things.

I enjoy hope, beauty, trust and love.

You have to believe in yourself before people will believe in you.

Description: I grew up on a small family farm in Northern Indiana and helped farm the very land that three generations of Vining's had farmed before me. During the late 90's, with the emergence of larger corporate farms, it become more difficult to manage a small farm and like many of other small family farms in America, we sold out. This happened in January of my senior year of high school and I can vividly remember the day of our auction. Watching your barns emptied and everything you have come to know disappear in a day is not something easily forgotten. 

Needless to say, this was a very difficult time for our family.  In the years to come I reflected upon this experience through my artwork and paintind a series of old abandoned farm houses trying to express the longing and sadness I have, not only for our lost family farm, but generally, to the end of the era of small family farms dominating the countryside.  So, over time these abandoned farm houses in my paintings have evolved and taken new life in the more simplified forms that are common in my work today.

URL: http://www.justinvining.com

Michael Lile

Location: Indianapolis, IN

Education: University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN Master of Arts in Fine Arts (Painting), May 2002/ Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts/ Bachelor of Arts in Art Education 
  
Philosophy: I wish to make art as I breathe--mostly as a reflex, but with the occasional light of consciousness.
 
Description: I create object paintings using mostly acrylic-based media on Russian Birch.

Location:  Lafayette, IN

Education: Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1992

Philosophy: Through my photographs, I question identity—the multiple identities of situations, people, and objects as undergirded by narrative. My photographs are meant to dialogue with—and to disturb—the narrative expectations of the viewer so that other meanings, and other narratives preceding the captured moment, become available. 

Description: As a photographer, I work in both film and digital formats.  Primarily, I photograph objects—always captured as is— in found contexts restructured through the lens or in constructed contexts that heighten the essential qualities of the object. I aim to create a dissonance between structure and theme that suggests ambiguity, not always by manipulating the physical world but by manipulating the point of view.

URL: http://susanbritsch.blogspot.com 

Rena Brouwer

Location:  Delphi, IN

Education:  Self - taught artist
 
Philosophy:  Responding to life intuitively- the movement of the pigment frees me from a world of boundries.
 
Description:  I mainly paint watercolors on paper.  Some work I add additional media : acrylic, pencil , pastel, charcoal

Andy Buck

Location:  Lafayette, IN

Education: McCutcheon High School 2002

Philosophy: I believe artists can freely express themselves far better with mixed media art. My art reflects my life, my feelings, how I felt at a moment in time. Whether it be when I was having a good time, or when I was so depressed that I felt like I could not go on anymore. I can turn one of these moments into a beautiful work of art, and make light out of a situation that once bothered or depressed me. My art is unlike anything you have seen before because it is unique and one of a kind. I have had no formal training of any kind, but have always been creative, and have come up wih some unique ideas.

Description: I work with oils, acrylics, and anything I can get my hands on. I love to grab from the things around me in my house or in my studio and recycle those found objects into my work.

Sally Harless

Location: Bloomington, IN

Education: BFA Printmaking, minor in Art History; Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 2007

Philosophy: My work fuses images reminiscent of children's books with the struggles of adjusting to adulthood. My characters deal with issues of self consciousness, depression, solitude, and longing. I attempt to make images relatable in content and aesthetically pleasing. I also incorporate elements of humor in all of my work through the use of anthropomorphism as well as cynicism. My art has become a visual diary of what happens in my world and how those things affect me. I use these characters as a vehicle to tell my own story.

Description: Although I received my degree in printmaking, I have developed a love of both watercolor and cut-paper illustration.

Ina Kaur

Location: Bowling Green, Ohio, USA

Education:  MFA-Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, BFA-Chandigarh College of Art, Punjab, India

Description: My research is concerned with personal identity and hybridity. As an Indian woman working in United States, I explore the continuum of cross-cultural negotiation made necessary both by the historical occupation of East by West and by my displacement and relocation. My work represents hybrid identity formed through personal, cultural and spiritual experience. The work combines both conscious and unconscious influences and incorporates symbols and circular motifs that reference elements of East and West. I merge colors and materials associated with my Indian heritage with western notions of abstraction and aesthetics.

Liz Erlewine

Location: West Lafayette, IN

Education: BFA University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.  MFA Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Philosophy: Recently, my work is concerned relationships between work and play and ideas of productivity and futility.

Description: I have a background in printmaking, drawing, and painting, but now primarily make toy-like brightly colored cute, grotesque, and soft plush objects.

Dan McClannen

Location:  Lafayette, IN

Education: BFA in Illustration, The Maryland Institute College of Art

Philosophy: My work shows me something about myself. Done intuitively, without a preliminary concept, the subject matter, form, and color are determined throughout the process.  Insignificant decisions reveal themselves as significant and by the end what I have is a sort of psychological self-portrait.

Description: I work with a variety of media on any given piece almost always including at least acrylic, ink, and collage, but nothing is off limits.

Candice Hartsough McDonald

Location: Indianapolis, IN

Education: BFA Fine Arts, minor in Art History; Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN, 2005

Philosophy: I draw what I like, and what makes me happy. I enjoy creating a story with an image, and letting the viewer put that story into words.  I like stepping back from the action, and, on the sly, making viewers use their own imagination to figure out what my intentions might have been.

Description: I mainly work in colored pencil, however, more and more mixed media have been creeping into my work.  I'm beginning to use mixtures of watercolor and gouache, acrylic, graphite, and colored pencil.

Angela Cummings Thompson

Location:  Vass, NC

Education: BA- Meredith College 2001, Post BA Studies Purdue University 2005

Philosophy: A small town country girl that finds beauty in junked farm equipment. I like to bring back to life things no longer used, that I remember from my childhood. I like to think of it as contemporary folk Art!

Description: My work is mostly mixed media and found objects and they all have to do with my growing up on a farm and places I have been.