Lori Escalera

A native Los Angeleno, Lori centered her artistic life in the suburbs of the Southern California. Her artistic interests are figurative and revolve around the study of the figure. Lori questions the artist's place in the continuum of art history and cultural beliefs. Lori is a cross medium artist, whose primary work is done in oil paint and chalk. She exhibits her creativity in wet and dry mediums and in the street. Her work takes on an energy and vibrancy that refreshes the spirit and enlivens the imagination.

Escalera’s earliest influences in graphic design were Designer Sal Bass and the modular theories of Artist Wassily Kandinsky. The effect was that she relied heavily on abstraction of graphic elements and modular composition in her graphic design work. As a young college student in the 1970’s, Lori was influenced by textile Designer Shirley Eisman and designed corporate collateral at SDSU under Jerry Elliott.

In 1980 Lori was hired as protégé to Ben Mayer ARCA/ASID and studied under Mayer’s influence in international applied graphic design. In 1981 she started a graphic design/advertising firm “Graphica by Lori” which in 1986 morphed into “Design Etcetera.” Escalera has had a full career as a corporate graphic designer working with aerospace, advertising, institutional and manufacturing firms.

1995, Lori founded a civic art group "The Culver City A.R.T. Group,” Serving as President she coordinated public art exhibitions from 1995 - 2000. She was a founding member and advisor to "Ballona Creek Renaissance" 501-c3. Escalera has instructed hundreds of children and adults her ideas about art history, drawing, painting, and cultural arts, through camps, classes and private art lessons. In 1995 she began creating public art murals with community sectors. These murals act as anti-graffiti project examples, strengthen societal bonds, and serve Youth at Risk.

In 1994 Lori began Chalk Art Street Painting. by 2008 she became one of the world’s top recognized Street Painters. Her passion is recreating Neo Baroque and Academic Classism in the street.

In 2006, Escalera adopted as an Impressionistic Naturalistic Plein-Aire painting style. In 2010 Escalera began old Master style oil painting layering more transparent layers of glaze over bases of lower chroma color and painting Flemish style, influenced by Dutch Master Rembrandt and contemporary Master F. Scott Hess.