LAUREN J. KURKI

Kurki, Lauren J.
57 of Jersey City, NJ and Newport, RI, painter and set designer, died of cancer May 21, 2013 at home. Daughter of Lauri and Grace (Merklein) Kurki, Lauren is survived by mother Grace, sister Kim, brother John and beloved partner of thirty years, Candace Martin. She will be remembered forever by her dear friends the Whitlock family. Graduating from Boston University School for the Arts (BFA 77) and from Yale University School of Drama (MFA 97), Lauren taught theater courses and designed over thirty sets and lighting designs at Clark University Department of Visual Arts in Worcester, MA during the fourteen years she served as Resident Designer and Technical Director in the theater department. Lauren created set designs for many years around New England and NYC for theater groups including Shakespeare and Co., The Working Theater, The Fringe Festival, HERE, Fordham University, Columbia University, Turnip Theater, Raw Space, Andy's Play House (NH), Alias Stage (RI), and Boston Shakespeare Company. Lauren was also a painter having studied most notably at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA and at the Lacoste School of the Arts, France. She had several solo shows and exhibited in several juried shows in Massachusetts including Fitchburg Art Museum regional exhibit, Boston Visual Artist Union "Impressionism in the 90's", Grove St. Gallery, Worcester, MA and the USITT Regional Exhibit. Lauren loved life and the friends she made over the years. She enjoyed her horse, dogs, sailing, painting, opera, carpentry, sewing, barbecuing, Ocean City, Provincetown, swimming, creating parties, and George Washington. She was a renaissance woman and will be missed by many. Memorial donations at
www.fracturedatlas.org