Laura Olear was born in Chicago in 1965 into a family of hypochondriacs, health fanatics, and actual sick people. She would not know how this would effect her until some 35 years later with the completion of her MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. In the intervening years, Laura attended and received her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago (1988), traveled and lived in Europe, met and married her husband and owned and operated her own gallery and custom frame shop. Points of interest in between included Chicago, Amsterdam, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Los Angeles, Savannah, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, among others. However, Olear became bored with her role as business owner, and wishing to devote time to her art decided to pursue her MFA. With the introspection afforded by such an endeavor, Olear realized her fascination with the formation of perceptions of health and disease. Delving into her own family’s history of illness, and the attitudes and dynamics established by such illness, Olear pursued a body of work to reflect these concerns. Working in various media including oil paint, mixed media sculpture, drawing, printmaking, sound and installation, Olear hopes to provoke thought regarding the true nature of perceptions of the body, disease and health.