Laurel Burch's Thoughts on Her First Years
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I am an artist and artists are dreamers. As a child, I lived in the infinite realm of my imagination. Running on the beach being the goddess of the seas … dancing with mythical tigers in secret jungles … prancing across a desert oasis veiled in tribal jewels. As I grew, so grew my passion to imagine, to create, and to share fantasy, ritual, magic!
Someone once said, 'children are a wonderful way to start people.' A passion to keep the child in all of us alive has been a great source of joy to me. There are so many things to learn from children and my designs give me the chance to give back the inspiration they've given to me."
“Growing up, I'd rarely come straight home from school. I'd meander around, seeking secret hideouts I knew were full of treasures from other worlds. I used to collect little stones in bags. I delighted in their shapes and colors, and at home I'd put them in different arrangements and love them. I remember always dreaming beyond what I knew, then coming up with something that made the dreams come true. Sometimes my designs come to mind fully formed ... most of the time they evolve. A thought becomes a shape, colors an idea, an eye, a spirit, a being."
“As I grew older, however, I felt emotionally unstable and untalented. I guess you could say I grew up in a broken home. Ultimately, my father married three times, my mother twice. I found some measure of peace in playing the guitar, dancing and drawing. I left home at 14 with only a paper bag of clothing, cleaning houses and caring for children in exchange for room and board. I dropped out of high school and became a vagabond, going around singing and playing the guitar. I met and married jazz musician Robert Burch when I was 19. We moved to San Francisco and I was soon a divorced mother with two children - I was 19 when Aarin was born and 23 when I gave birth to my son Jay.