Pearl Lau
Pearl has been a practicing artist her whole life. Born in Hong Kong and raised in New York City, she started art school on Saturdays as a young kid. The Saturday school was run by a gentleman who was taught by John Singer Sargent at the Art Student's League of NYC. Pearl was required to draw in charcoal from plaster casts of the neck, the hand etc. After a year of purely academic training, she was allowed to start oil painting. First by copying one of the hundreds of print reproductions available in the art studio. After several years, she was accepted into Art and Design High School in Manhattan. There she honed her painting and drawing skills but in addition, learned graphic design, typography, photography and marketing skills. This enabled her to eventually be executive art director in the big publishing houses, McGraw-Hill, Little, Brown and Time-Life, to name a few. She received the Gold Award by age 30 from the New York Art Director’s Club. This is a national competition, only one Gold Award is given a year.
When Pearl had her daughter Lily, she switched over to art education. As an art director, you’re required to have very late hours, and travel for sometimes a week at a time. Teacher hours were much more conducive to raising a daughter.
As a teacher, Pearl received several awards, as elementary art teacher of the year in New York City, and then overall art teacher of the year. (there are 1,700 art teachers in NYC) These awards were based on pedagogy and delivery and critical thinking in the art room.
As an art educator, Pearl received over 8 study grants to learn about art in other countries and cultures. She had several National Endowment for the Humanities grants to study MesoAmerican art in Mexico, Freeman Foundation grants to study art in China and a Fulbright to study art in India. In India a monkey stole her glasses off her face.
- MEDIUM -
Pastel / Charcoal
Artist Statement
“Art has been my life, it’s opened doors for me all over and has had me meet very fascinating people. With art in your life, you’re never bored!”
- GALLERY -
