Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Fleniken.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born and raised in Texas in a small town called Montague, barely half an hour from the Red River. I grew up with no siblings, just my parents and I, in an area so dense with nature our indicator of the house was the driveway. I shot cans with my Red Ryder and wrote love letters for the bird nests on the patio. My parents are total cinephiles, so I’d comb through the collections of DVD’s and began my own collection as well. I loved Tim Burton and Pixar- for a long time, I wanted to go into animation. I would devour the animated shorts on every DVD, making my own clay figures of characters in tune with the animators in the behind the scenes footage. I painted my toys, made dollhouses from boxes, created stop motion music videos to Avril Lavigne with my dolls. I spent most of my preteen life drawing feverishly, finishing whole sketchbooks and drawing during class. In high school, I was drawing less and doing more theatre. I did musicals and plays, acted, sang, and danced on stage, but I also found a love of sewing during this time. My best friend and I would skip class to go sew costumes with our director like the punks we were.
It took me a while to settle on the idea of pursuing studio art in college. I went from animation, to theatre, to finally studio art. I went to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth in the Fall of 2020 when everyone was still wearing masks, and I had only one in person class. It was really hard for me to adjust to living on my own for the first time. Being in the city for me felt so vulnerable, and it was difficult to meet people on campus with so limited social interaction. Once more classes started going in person, I started becoming adjusted to the art building. I didn’t touch oil paint until the Fall of ’21. It definitely wasn’t love at first sight, it was more like an enemy that you learn to tolerate and then suddenly you’re head over heels. I graduated in 2023 with my BFA in Painting, and I moved up to Denton with my best friend for a brief period to get my feet on the ground. At this time, I was fortunate to have been accepted into the Cedars Union in Cohort 4 soon after graduating.
Before I graduated, I was starting to show in different galleries and connect with other artists in the area. It was nice to come out of undergrad, and straight into a community studio program where I could continue to experiment and engage with other artists. I ended up meeting another artist who just recently started up his own space called Zeke’s Projects, and I was so grateful to be asked to have my first solo show this last fall. We had hot dogs and pink T-shirts with my name and a picture of Miss Piggy. Through this show, I feel like I really found my voice, and since then I have been further pushing myself to see how far I can prod. Currently, I have a studio in the Tin District with so many fabulous artists and am now residing in Dallas. When I’m not working in my studio, I have a full time job at Central Market on the art staff, doing signage for melons and whatnot.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’ve definitely had my struggles along the road. In the first semester of college, I started going to therapy because my mom could tell that something was wrong. At 19 with my therapist, I realized a year after the incident that I was assaulted by an ex boyfriend. It became too much for me to deal with, and I stopped seeing my therapist as my anger became uncontrollable. I was losing a lot of friends, and I look back and I realize that a lot of my pain was self inflicted. I wasn’t talking about the incident to a lot of people because I felt so much shame, embarrassment, and guilt. Minor inconveniences were enough to send me off the rails, and my emotions fluctuated intensely on a daily basis. I left Fort Worth after graduating when I felt like I needed a fresh start.
I’ve been back and forth in therapy since then with a new therapist, and I feel like I can see past the fog most days. Other days, I feel like curling up and shutting out the world. Healing is never linear. It’s difficult being a woman making vulnerable work about assault and what it does to your mind and your identity. It’s hard for me to go to that place in my brain so frequently-it’s like theatre in its own way. You are constantly tapping into that terrible emotion to deliver the best performance of your life, at any cost.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m mostly an oil painter, but I enjoy using sculptural aspects as well with fabric. My work centers around the femme sexual identity, especially post trauma, while using iconography of the South and the mythology of the rural landscape as connection to the body. I use self portraiture as a reflection of identity and vulnerability, characterizing myself based off the ways I perceive me with a warped outlook. I tie in my Texan countryside roots through landscape and creatures, I feel like any animal I paint is also a self portrait. My work is all tones of pinks, purples, and blues- I want to create a realm that feels almost surreal, hyper-romantic, fleshy, and cinematic. Most of my family including my parents are born and raised Southern Louisiana, so I’ve always felt a deep connection to the environment of our Southern states.
I think I am most proud of where I’ve come from and where I’ve been so far. I’ve always been a bit of an underdog, as any weird art middle school kid was. I’ve paved my way into a lot of spaces, and I’m proud of myself for being able to keep myself moving forward. I’m highly determined, and also extremely stubborn, so if I want to do something, I’m going to do it.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
What I like most about Dallas is the readiness of everything at hand! When I say I grew up in the middle of nowhere, I mean we drove 20 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store, which was either Walmart or Brookshire’s. I work at Central Market so I shop here too, and I am so entertained by all the items and exotic products we carry. When I was commuting from Denton as well, the drive was so burdensome. It’s been a real breath of fresh air to live in Dallas and not have to drive an hour to get to my studio or work.
Ironically, the thing I like the best is also somewhat what I like the least-the infrastructure. I feel the most at home in nature and surrounded by greenery and wildlife, and being in the concrete jungle is something I struggle with. It’s almost isolating and lonely to look around and see people everywhere.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laurenflenikenart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/l.m.flen.art/
