Ciao!

My name is Lauren Buroker. I'm also a non-traditional student at 24. In 2006, I graduated from Wes-Del, a small town country school about ten or fifteen minutes from campus.  After a confusing semester at IU as a Nuclear Medicine Technologies major, I took some time off and went to massage school for a year. Attending classes on the weekends, I worked full time collecting urine samples from narcotic users at the local pain clinic. (It paid really well and I was desperate to get out from under my parents roof.)

I practiced successfully for a year, but started to develop carpal tunnel. I broke my contract and searched for anything outside of retail and piss-testing. Landing back in Muncie, I picked up bar-tending at Mugly's (now Cleo's). With a lot of prayer, I started back in school completely unsure of what degree I wanted. I found VisComm. After a semester of core classes, I signed up for the Leap-Program the following summer and shot for the portfolio review for both the art department and Visual Communication. 7 of us made it in out of over 100 qualified and worthy competitors- I'm told it was the most challenging review the university has seen. Seeing the work from my classmates, I understand.

Our first week in Photo History we dove right into some impressive and informative readings. It is always encouraging to me when I see current events surround pieces and topics discussed in my classes. I discovered this brief article on the View From The Window At Le Gras. Surprisingly, the article was not as informative or resourceful as it could/should have been.

I'm a big fan of the process of anything artist. Photography has been used as to catalog artist processes. Craig Tracy's Painted Alive has been an inspiration to me for a couple years. Though I have never seen the studio myself, my cousin down in New Orleans who passes it daily, keeps me posted. The website has an amazing archive of works.  Though best known for breathing paintings, Craig has many prints of the masterpieces as well.