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About Laura

Laura Shape is an award-winning multidimensional artist whose contemporary luxury pieces have gained international attention for sparking conversations around beauty, advocacy, and happiness. Laura uses innovative, hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind pieces to champion positive global impacts around sustainability and mental health. The artistic entrepreneur’s current work focuses on a serious environmental issue by using the leather from invasive animal species to protect native species and revive global ecosystems. 

Laura’s inquisitive and optimistic nature allows her to create innovative art with a message and an impact. “I liked working with exotic leathers because of their beautiful textures and patterns, but I wanted to find ethically sourced leathers. That’s when I learned about the invasive Burmese Python problem in the Florida Everglades. After researching, I found a new company that makes leather from these and other invasive species to help solve this problem. And I now use them in my art.” Laura is now considered the world’s first invasive animal species artist.

The Midwest-raised child of an artist and an engineer, Laura inherited her love of artistic expression and an intrinsic need to innovate from her parents. She turned down an early acceptance into Carnegie Mellon to pursue graphic design at Rochester Institute of Technology as it was at the forefront of including computers in its design curriculum. Shortly afterward, she embarked on a highly successful two-decade career in Los Angeles, primarily with internet startups, honing her passion for transforming concepts into reality.

Laura began expanding her artistic ambitions soon after moving to Colorado in 2015. Drawing on her experience with a wide range of art-making techniques, she began building her own business with a mission to make a positive impact on the world through art. “My current pieces are mostly abstract explorations of color and texture. So at first glance, they are simply beautiful, but when the viewer discovers they are made with invasive carp that are harming the Mississippi River, for instance, the pieces take on more significance. They become symbols of protecting this vitally important waterway.” 

Laura’s work has been featured in numerous publications, is in private collections around the world, and has even received an award from a Fellow of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. With the overwhelmingly positive response to her latest work, Laura continues to push the boundaries of what art can accomplish. Her lifelong goal is to constantly invent new ways to support important causes, inspire happiness, and create beauty. And she encourages everyone to do the same. “My advice is to find what gives you joy and keep doing it. Then share that joy with the world to inspire others. We need it so badly.”

Recent Awards

2023 - Juror’s Award winner. (Juror: Anna Davis, Fellow at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center ), "Breaking Ground: Art about the Earth"

2022 - Special Recognition for the 3 Dimensional Category (Jurors: Chris and Valerie Hoffman, gallery owners), "Nature"

See more Awards & Exhibitions

See available artwork