Working primarily in watercolor and acrylics, Bill Laursen's paintings are defined by their bright colors and unique shapes and patterns. Laursen has been an art instructor for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Utah since 2007, and has recently shown his work at the Alice Horne Gallery and Marmalade library branch. 

From the artist: "With the arrival of Covid-19 in the Spring of 2020, the world faced a new reality that quickly rearranged the status quo of living life and daily routines. For me, a personal challenge was to how I might accommodate a possible 'lockdown' and still keep painting amid a new crisis. Would I even want to? Looking at what could turn out to be an indefinite stretch of time, I felt I couldn't just sit and stare at walls. That motivated me to keep painting and see where it led. I wanted to create a positive record of what I was doing with my life during an anxious event. Wasting time was simply not an acceptable option. I unexpectedly discovered that the more I painted, the more I needed to paint and the more I had to paint. nstead of having a negative impact, the pandemic energized my productivity and gave me a sense of control over my own world while I was 'escaping' the real one."