Laurie McKean is a sculptor/poet who resides in Arizona.   She has graduate degrees in Biology and Special Education from University of Arizona and North Carolina State University, respectively.  Laurie worked as a bioarchaeologist and environmental biologist for many years, then taught math/sciences/languages and other subjects to adolescents in a psych hospital in North Carolina.

Returning to Arizona, she followed through on a long-held desire to create welded steel sculpture (particularly wearable steel pieces). Her work has been shown in a gallery at a sculpture park in Texas and she has pieces exhibited in Arizona, California, Wisconsin, Florida and other places.

Greek mythology and biological images inform both her poetry and sculptural design. Myths are more than mere stories and they serve a more profound purpose in ancient and modern cultures. Myths are sacred tales that explain the world and man's experience. 

Iris Love, my mother’s close friend from childhood, became a world-renowned archaeologist. In the 1960s she found an early temple and a famous sculpture of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, in what is now Turkey.  Iris was a flamboyant storyteller and brought to life the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece. She always wore a dolphin necklace, an important symbol of that goddess.  As she spoke, I entered the complex universe she unlocked. The characters had so many facets and hidden elements to explore. Greek and Roman mythology became a natural part of my creative language. 

In the way that one “picture is worth a thousand words”, one mythological figure embodies a layered set of concepts that speak to me in a single gesture.