Laureen Griffin

Laureen is a visual artist who works primarily in digital media, photography, and printmaking. Her work provides opportunities for people to explore issues of identity and representation through art making and exhibition. Her goals are to provide visibility for women and gender variant people with the hopes of creating a belief system open to new possibilities of identity. She doesn't want to change people, but hopes to make and exhibit art that authenticates self. Her newest work Gender Portraiture Project brings together photographic portraits with personal narrative. She asks each participant to think about how they identity within the male-female spectrum. Laureen is a founder of "trans-gression" a multidisciplinary artists' collective comprised of people exploring gender identity and stereotyping in their work. She is also an Art Gallery committee member at William Way Community Center for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Community.

Laureen will lead a 10-session photography/ video/ digital imaging arts workshop at William Way for folks who identify as ‘women’ to explore the modern and historical iconography of ‘women.’ The sessions will focus on participants using various media arts to create icons they would want to see that represent the group’s culture, including those who are queer, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, feminine/ masculine, androgynous, femme, butch, goddess, and /or dyke, along with icons that represent participants as they see themselves, often with no specific gendered label at all. The last session will include a public reception and screening of the participants’ work.