LACE REUTER  

Since early childhood growing up in Tacoma, Washington, Lace Reuter’s main passion in life has been the creation of art, and in particular, painting.  In her words, "In growing up, art was very much a part of family life around the house".  Both of her parents are artists, her mother a painter and her father a professional photographer.  And her sister went into music.  "My parents always encouraged my sister and me to be creative and resourceful in our search for games to play and toys to make.  The most important lesson I learned as a kid was to see beyond the everyday usage of ordinary objects, and use my imagination to discover the true potential of household appliances.  Stacks of old Tupperware became building blocks, an unsuspecting junk drawer turned into a scrap box for collage, and anything – absolutely anything – could be made out of masking tape. That said, the realization that I wanted to become a painter was a gradual one. It started with my bedroom actually, where I decided to paint a jungle on the walls when I was eleven".

Throughout her middle school years Lace continued adding to and changing those bedroom walls so that by the time she was fourteen it had turned into a giant installation of collage.  That same year, when in eighth grade she took her first art class and realized "Oh, it’s called "art", what I’ve been doing all these years…hey, I’m good at that!"  Her art teacher saw it too and was very supportive.  Towards the end of the school year Lace was offered the opportunity to paint a courtyard full of murals at the school.  Every spare minute of every day was spent there in that courtyard.  "All that blank space, and I could do anything I wanted with it!  I had never felt so free.  That is when I knew I was a painter.  I then began taking that same creative energy I had been pouring into my bedroom walls, and transferring it onto canvas".  A number of years have passed now, and after going from high school to community college, she then went on to The American University in Paris, where she received a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs.

One of Ms. Reuter’s other passions is to learn of different cultures, be they at home in the United States, or abroad.  She is currently in Japan teaching English.  While there she is learning Japanese, volunteering at Amnesty International Japanese Section in her free time, and painting, with the hopes of having an exhibit while there.  After two or three years in Japan, she then intends to continue living in different countries, learning of new cultures and their language, work for human rights organizations, and paint of what she sees and experiences. 

In addition to the mural she painted for her high school, she was also commissioned to do one for a Tacoma jazz club, as well as six other paintings for the Disney film "Ten Things I Hate About You"; after which she then spent a year and a half researching and painting a spectacular five mural series depicting Harlem Renaissance era participants in Theater, Music, Visual Arts and Literature.

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