A Portrait of the Artist: Lora Tabakin-Latterner

According to Lora Tabakin-Latterner the role of arts in the community is to open people's minds, engage them in a conversation and change their perspective.

"I use my work as a storytelling tool to initiate conversations with people. My favorite part of my first show at The Arts Barn was being able to discuss my work with other people," said Tabakin-Latterner who exhibited her watercolors and pulled prints as part of a mother-daughter duo from November 2010 to mid-January 2011 at The Arts Barn.

Although she credits her mother, Bonita Tabakin-Latterner, with giving her the impetus and means to take to the next level what began as stream of consciousness doodling on the side of a notebook during her International Business classes at the University of Maryland, Lora Tabakin-Latterner's work looks very different than Bonita's.

She incorporates text, bold color — especially red and black with occasional flourishes of hot pink — stylized linework and even accidental coffee spills into her whimsical designs.

"What I like about art is that the creative act happens in the moment, and that you can always go back and change things. When you finally get to show it, it's a finished product, and you can stand behind it by explaining the thought process that went into its making without the pressure of on-the-spot improvisation," said Tabakin-Latterner.

Lora Tabakin-Latterner started sketching in the margins of her schoolbooks when she was 12 and did not think her work amounted to anything in the beginning. She was ready to crumple it up and throw it away. It was her mother, Bonita Tabakin-Latterner who looked at her work and encouraged her to blow it up in scale, start to make decisions about the intricate shapes she was designing and allow the work to stand alone as a painting.

"I observed my mother paint since I was very young — perhaps three or four years old. We used to talk about her work and see different objects in it. Something that looked like a bird to me might have looked like a fish to her. What has really influenced me is that my mother's work is not representational in a traditional sense. It is open to interpretation."

One of her pieces, "Suitcase City - Where the People Have No Name," exemplifies the way Tabakin-Latterner approaches her creative outlets. Like a poet, she starts by thinking of a word that captures a mood or a feeling and designs an armature of color and linework around it. When working on "Suitcase City," she was thinking of all her friends who moved to Washington, D.C. for a short period of time and then packed their bags and took off for other places.

In her piece "Flow," she accommodated an accidental coffee spill as part of her creative process.

"Change is good," said Tabakin-Latterner. "I always welcome and facilitate the process of change through my work."

Lora Tabakin-Latterner grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and currently lives in Gaithersburg. She is constantly producing new work and looks forward to opportunities to show and share her paintings and prints in the future.

A full-time student she recognizes the importance of art in leading a healthy lifestyle.

"Homework has a predetermined time slot, but art I can pick up at any point. I can pick up a piece of paper and start sketching, and it comes naturally and it's something I enjoy doing," she says.

Like her mother, Bonita Tabakin-Latterner, she believes in the healing power of art and the ability of color to effect positive change.