I was trained professionally as a scientist but I always considered art as my second profession. Shortly after I immigrated to the United States in 1971, I started painting in oils, largely abstract images of my native Iceland. Later, I became inspired by various political ideas- including the feminist movement, as I sought to balance the act of being a mother-wife-scientist with that of an artist. Some of these works were subject to a solo exhibit in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1978. In the following years, my role as an artist gave way to my other work and very few paintings remain from the eighties.

I returned to painting in 1995, studying drawing with the French artist Andre Enard at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and painting with the Icelandic artist Vala Arnadottir in her New York studio (1995-98). At that time, my work changed in search of a more lyrical expression.

My sources of inspiration include the interplay of seasonal light and space, classical music, and politics. I am also interested in the experience of exile, the merging of cultures, and how to preserve personal/national identity in a globalized context.

I have completed a number of commissions, including in New York a Mount Sinai Medical Center commission of five large paintings for its permanent collection on display in its public areas (completed in 1998).

Laufey Vilhjalmsdottir Bustany