About the Artist
Lauren Walke is a visual artist and illustrator based in rural Virginia. Working primarily in mixed media, she creates layered, symbolic imagery informed by Appalachian landscapes, folklore, and myth. Her work explores ritual, memory, and relationships between people, belief, and the natural world.
Walke holds a BFA in Two-Dimensional Studies from Weber State University. Over the past decade, she has worked as a freelance illustrator, art director, and educator, experiences that inform her approach to storytelling, composition, and visual narrative.
About the Work
Lauren Walke creates layered, symbolic imagery through illustration, painting, and mixed media. She brings together figures, environments, and visual language drawn from folklore, myth, religious iconography, and art history to create images that reward slow observation. Each piece functions as a mirror more than a window, inviting viewers to notice connections, tensions, and moments of recognition while forming their own interpretations.
Rooted in the landscapes of Appalachia, Walke’s practice is informed by attentive observation. Walking creeks, tending gardens, and returning to familiar places allow her to notice what changes, what remains, and how living systems continually affect one another. These experiences guide her visual language and inform her approach to presence, interdependence, ritual, and the cycles of life.
Through her work, she creates spaces where viewers can slow down, reflect, and recognize the subtle relationships between humans, animals, and the environments they inhabit.
Contact me: 9sirenscreative@gmail.com
Social Media:
Facebook: New work, news & events, connect
Instagram: Work in progress, slice of life, videos
Pinterest: A magpie collection of images that inspire me
Selected Shows:
2026 – Re-Reading, Re-Making: Art After Dialogue, The J. Kirk Museum, Orem, UT
2026 – Appalachian Awakening, Create Appalachia, Kingsport, TN
2025 – Liquid Commonwealth: The Art and Life of Water in Virginia, Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, VA
2025 – Pilgrims at the Creek, Roanoke, VA
2021 – Certain Women Art Show, SLC, UT
2020 – Breathe: Protections, Paradigms, Pandemic, Shenandoah Valley Art Center, Waynesboro, VA
2018 – Handed Down and Altered, The Mormon Arts Festival at Columbia University, New York, NY
2018 – The Kitchen Sink, Delurk Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC
2015 – Salt Lake Gallery Stroll Solo Show, Underbelly Creative, Salt Lake City, UT
2015 – Salt Lake Gallery Stroll Group Show, Underbelly Creative, Salt Lake City, UT
2013 – BFA Thesis Exhibition, Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, UT
2013 – BFA Seminar Exhibition, Department Of Visual Arts Lobby, Ogden, UT
2013 – Opening Exhibition, Pandemonium Art Gallery, Ogden, UT
2013 – Student Exhibition, Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Ogden, UT
Recognition:
2013 – Juror Award, Disappearing Series (1,2, and 4)
Published Work:
2026 – Artemis Journal, Vol XXXIII
2025 – Shadows over Ravenkirk by Vivian Moira Valentine
2025 – Flash Frog, April 14, 2025
2024 – Exponent II , Vol 43 No. 4
2024 – Artemis Journal, Vol XXXI
2023 – Exponent II , Vol 43 No. 1
2023 – Katabasis: Monologues for the Dead, BCC Press
2023 – Cherish, BCC Press
2023 – Exponent II, Guest Post
2022 – Wayfare Magazine, Volume 1, Winter 2022
2022 – MER Online, Volume 20,
2022 – Exponent II, Guest Post
2022 – Exponent II, Guest Post
2021 – Young Ravens Literary Review, Issue 15, Winter 2021
2021 – Exponent II, Vol 41 No. 2
2021 – The Dialogue Journal Sunday School, August 22, 2021
2021 – Artemis Journal, Vol XXVIII
2021 – Exponent II, Vol 40 No. 3
2021 – Hexen’s Wane
2020 – Young Ravens Literary Review, Issue 13, Winter 2020
2020 – Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit by Molly Meador
2019 – Hexen’s Binding
2018 – Exponent II, Vol 38 No. 1
2018 – Hexen’s Cross
2014 – Freddie the Penguin
2013 – Mixitini Matrix, Volume 3 Issue 1XXXIII