Laurie Lavenhar was born in Ames, Iowa, brought up in suburban Detroit and in 1978 arrived in Colorado for graduate school in audiology. In February 2005, just after being diagnosed with ocular melanoma, she began to draw and her artistic expression became a healing tool. She works in mixed media and her work is licensed in the greeting card industry and sold locally and nationally. Her mask represents two women bound by a common spirit as sisters, mothers and daughters, good friends and partners. They share a devout love for the three children who stand around them.