SOMA Living September 2021

ARTIST OF THE MONTH

Lara Tomlin

The coffee and treats notwithstanding, one of my favorite things about The Able Baker are Lara Tomlin’s pencil-on-paper portraits of the bakery’s incredible staff. Covering almost an entire wall of the space, Tomlin’s charming and expressive drawings give us so much insight into the people who run this beloved Maplewood institution. She has drawn almost 50 Able Baker portraits since 2015 as part of an ongoing series; each one takes her five to six hours to complete. Tomlin is a professional illustrator whose work has been published in The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, among others. Her business, The Painted Pup, launched when she started painting miniature dog portraits for family and friends. Tell us about your work, your medium, and your tools. I specialize in portraiture – human and animal. I work in pencil, gouache, or gouache and ink and always work on cotton rag paper. I work with commercial/editorial clients, and also do private commissions. What is your process of creation? I work from photographs. I love to use my own photos, but can also work from photos that people provide. I’ll do a sketch or two, show the client, and then proceed to painting or drawing the final art. This is how I’ve always done editorial illustrations, and it’s a system that works. What is your inspiration? I am inspired by so many things: art history, photography, plants, animals, weird music, terrible movies, baking . . . all of those things can inform what I’m doing.

Do you work at home? If so, do you have a dedicated studio space? Yes, we converted our attic to a studio for me. How long have you been a full-time artist? Since 2004, but I’ve really always had part-time jobs. I worked as a cookie decorator at The Able Baker for eight years. What other artists do you draw inspiration from? I’ve always loved the German Expressionists and the Russian Avant-Garde. I also love photography – Atget, Avedon, Horst, and Weegee’s street-murder photos.

Have you always wanted to be an artist? Yes!

Elizabeth Harrison Kubany is founder of KUBANY, LLC, a communications firm established on her lifelong belief in the power of architecture, design, and art to make the world a better, more beautiful, and more equitable place. She is also the co- founder, with her husband, of Winterhouse Projects, an online gallery platform that promotes the work of emerging artists. @ElizabethKubany

SEPTEMBER 2021 | SOMA LIVING 29

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