Lauren Vargas is a Philadelphia-based painter whose work focuses on the stories communicated through portraiture and urban landscapes. Working as both a painter and educator, Vargas lives in the North Philadelphia community of Hunting Park. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Fine Arts and Urban Studies in 2005 and also holds her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership. She has received two Leeway Art and Change Grants for artistic projects that impacted social change in 2015 and 2016. She also participated in Art in the Open Philadelphia in 2012 and 2016. Lauren Vargas has worked as a community artist since 2005, both teaching youth arts class and leading community murals or other creative projects. Recently, she has shown work at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Abington Arts Center, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson Hospital, and the 3rd Street Gallery.

After more than two years of social distance and isolation, my Art in the Open project focuses on the concept of human connection. The ancient concept of shalom, or peace, means that one is deeply connected and in a healthy relationship with all: one’s self, other people, the Creator and our natural world. Peace is not just an absence of war, pain, or disease, but it is also a state of valuing the full humanity of others and ourselves in healthy connectedness. I plan to create interconnected portraits of the people at AiO, intermingled with drawings of the natural elements along the Schuylkill River, on one long roll of watercolor paper. I will invite participants to pose for approximately five minutes while I draw their portraits. While participants sit for the drawing, I will invite them to share a story of human connection or what connectedness or peace means to them. When possible, I’ll weave the text of their response into the portrait. After this season of disconnectedness, I seek to promote the unity of humanity through my artwork, particularly in the public space of art-making that is created through Art in the Open.