I just found that last week the Boston area lost one of its hardest working artists, Lauren Geraghty.
In 1995 I met Lauren during my senior year at Framingham State College where she was working towards her degree in Fine Art Graphic Design. I interviewed her for the college paper article that touched on her disability but focused much more on her future aspirations. More than a couple of her written pieces graced the last issue of The Onyx that I worked on as a reader. Not only that, but a mutual friend immortalized her artistry and interest in drawing nudes in another of that issue's poems. No matter how close you were to her, she made an impact on people's lives, especially her fellow creative folk.
Ten years after graduation, I was co-organizing a fundraiser for the Out of the Blue Art Gallery. We were soliciting local artists for work to donate for the raffle. A friend brought me to Arlington where I reunited with the person who made such an impression on me and others. Lauren was still working, still creating and very happy to be doing both.
She graciously donated the two pieces shown here. She went a long way towards giving the fundraiser some class, and both pieces found happy homes.
I always had so much going on, and though I considered buying her work I never got around to it. Her work does take up space in my home via the pages of The Woman Has a Voice, the Ibbetson Street Press book put out by Deb Priestly.
My sole collaboration with Lauren when we were students (apart from the interview) was a comic strip in the college paper. When we met up again outside of school, I always wanted to work more closely with her--especially when I started creating and editing literary journals--but it never came to pass.
Partly it was because she had reservations regarding her schedule and concern over how her work would be seen. But if I'm to be honest, we didn't collaborate because she didn't need me--or anybody else--to spur her on to create what she wanted to create. She was one of the most independent and motivated people I ever met. It was a pleasure to know her even for such short moments in time.
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