Exploring the Inner Landscape: Laurie Victor Kay’s Pathos and Apothecary
Laurie
Victor Kay
A lens-based artist ventures inward — exploring identity, pain, and the kaleidoscopic terrain of a life examined.
Laurie Victor Kay, a lens-based artist known for her kaleidoscopic approach to photography and mixed media, invites viewers into a deeply personal space with her latest works. Moving from her renowned portraits of iconic figures like Alanis Morissette and Gigi Gorgeous, Laurie has turned her camera inward, offering glimpses into the emotional terrain of her own life.
Her projects, Pathos and Apothecary, blend photography, collage, video, and written journal entries, opening a vulnerable dialogue on identity, pain, and the ever-shifting human experience. Laurie's journey with photography began at the age of 14 with a Pentax K1000. Initially self-taught, her passion for visual storytelling expanded during her studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she explored both painting and photography, ultimately discovering the transformative power of capturing reality through different lenses.
"My journey as an artist has changed because I've changed."Laurie Victor Kay
Your work often combines photography with other mediums like painting and collage. What motivates you to blend these different forms of expression?
What I love about this question is that it encompasses exactly who I am as an artist. I've always seen myself as an artist first. I am motivated to blur lines because I feel that is where some of the most interesting work happens.
My creative expression asks me for so many different things: from the singular image to repetition used to de-identify to symmetrical compositions to balance chaos of my internal world. My background was originally in painting and drawing. It seems natural now to want to incorporate these practices into a new type of work with layers of photography and even digital drawing.
What inspired you to focus on trees as a subject in your photography, and what do they represent for you?
I think the first inspiration of trees for me began around the time I started traveling to Paris more regularly in the early 2000s. Seeing the formal gardens and the formal trees there really overwhelmed me. I have always been drawn to nature. I escape when I'm photographing trees because I am so connected and also disconnected from the world.
One very memorable experience I had recently was a two-hour drive one summer morning in the south of France to get to St. Tropez. It was raining. After I pulled up to the area, got out my camera, and started walking, the rain was now only softly drizzling. I looked over into this field and was suddenly greeted by two white horses. I had photographed there before, but I had never seen horses. It felt so mystical.
Born from personal tribulation, this series weaves together photography, journal entries, and collage to map the emotional contours of a life in transition. It is courage made visible.
Prescription pill bottles and pharmaceutical objects become symbols of code, chemistry, and change. "They are secrets. They are narratives that I'm writing even in the prescriptions."
From the formal gardens of Paris to the misty fields of the South of France, this ongoing series captures the mystical solitude found in nature — and the artist's deep communion with it.
How do personal objects — journals, prescriptions, everyday items — function as artistic mediums in your work?
Journal writing has been very important to me for a very long time. It's almost sacred. Capturing the writing in a photograph intrigued me. She examines how even the simplest artifacts — a tube of French wrinkle cream, a prescription pill bottle — carry layers of meaning.
These items, transformed by the camera's lens, embody narratives of self-discovery, resilience, and complexity. By placing symbols of the everyday and the intimate into an artistic framework, she reframes objects of private pain into conduits for collective reflection.
Apothecary and Pathos were created out of a time of personal tribulation, and I'm so proud to have come through that time. These projects, born from vulnerability and courage, represent my truth and my growth.
"The pills become about something else: code and chemistry and change. They are secrets. They are narratives that I'm writing even in the prescriptions."Laurie Victor Kay — On Apothecary
LVK Atelier is a space where lines blur as Laurie creates the studio and imagines new ways of seeing. She is actively looking through a decades-long career of work — nearly half her life — and thinking about the future.
"I've been through so much in the past year. I lost my mother to a short battle with cancer. I've been through seismic personal changes. I feel like my strength from everything I've experienced has given me a newfound energy."
- LVK Atelier
- Apothecary (ongoing)
- Pathos (ongoing)
- Site-Specific Commissions
- University of Nebraska Lecture
