Laurie Agard’s work as a visual storyteller has developed through extensive exploration and experimentation in different mediums. Laurie has graduate and post graduate degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies and Positive Psychology. She began her career in film where she has written, produced, and directed award-winning films that have premiered on networks like HBO and ABC and in 45 territories around the world. Laurie is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
It was Laurie’s film and television career that led her to dive headfirst into the mosaic medium, initially in the form of public street art. After facilitating travel and working extensively with diverse and often underserved communities to create exotic destinations which would serve as television show focal points on hit series like “Amazing Race”, “Survivor”, “Undercover Boss” and “Secret Millionaire”, she became enamored with the concept of creative place making, that is how to use art to make a destination out of a place that didn’t naturally lend itself to that, be it a deserted island, a dark alleyway, or a park bench in a forgotten space.
Impassioned by the social justice issues of environmental beautification she began participating, creating, and facilitating large scale architectural pieces of mosaic art. She loved the physicality of mosaic making and experiencing the domino effect that accessible and socially engaged public art can have on a community’s well-being. Though most of her mosaics are community-based large scale projects, she also has a passion for mosaic storytelling through portraiture, be it her pets, her family, or her flowers. She has exhibited her mosaic portraits throughout Wisconsin, Chicago, California, Australia, and France.