By TAYLOR MORRIS
Student Reporter
Cartoonist Lauren Purje from New York is on the Northwestern campus this month as the Studio Art program’s artist in residence.
For the past six weeks, Purje has been spending time with Northwestern’s Arts Department. Jave Yoshimoto, assistant professor of art, saw Purje’s work online and invited her to speak to art students and give a video lecture. Purje say that though she sees that Northwestern has a small arts department, the school has some promising arts students.
Perje originally grew up in Ohio. From a young age she knew that art was what she was destined to do. She says, “I was one of those kids that always knew the answer to the question, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” Art became a serious focus point for Purje in high school. After graduation, Purje attended Ohio University in Athens and graduated with a BFA in Painting. She then moved to New York and has lived there for almost five years. She started posting her cartoons on social media.
Her biggest influence in the cartoon industry was Jeffery Brown. She found his art to be inspirational, because to her his work is honest, simple, and genuine and that is what she aimed for in her cartoons. Eventually, an art blog based in Brooklyn called hyperallergic.com saw her work and asked her to do a weekly comic for them. She has been working with them for almost two years.
She doesn’t necessarily consider herself to be a “professional artist.” She says she really is just making it up as she goes along, and fortunately, it has all gone really well so far. As a cartoonist she feels that she has quite a significant amount of freedom to do the work that she wants to do.
To see more of her work, visit laurenpurje.com.