Stevens’ work reflects the small daily wonders of the land she calls home: the first crocus of spring, the resilient beauty of the plains, or that special sense of hope and possibility that is only found in the West. She is also interested in regional history, particularly the interactions of Native Americans and white settlers during the Reservation Period. Many of her paintings are an exploration of this dynamic and a meditation on the “taming of the West.” From Billings, MT, Laurie began her career as an artist in Los Angeles where she spent 12 years working for the entertainment industry as a scenic artist and muralist for television, theme park, theater and movie productions. She spent time as a member of the Walt Disney Imagineering team, lending her talents to many Disney theme park projects worldwide. She also did some set design, illustration, and matte paintings for several animated childrens’ movies. In the early 1980’s Stevens returned to her native Montana, first to the mountains near the Scapegoat Wilderness and then to the ranch near Cascade where she lived and worked for 27 years. Since that move years ago, her artistic focus transitioned from commercial mural work possibly 30’ high done in acrylic house paint, to her own art done in oils on a canvas 1/10 of that scale. Initially, that was quite a transition! Laurie recently left the ranch and has moved on now to the next chapter of life, which at this point is not a given! But with that comes adventure and the ability to reexamine what in life is most important. She knows that this next nesting place will still be in the area of Montana she calls home, near her wonderful friends, and surrounded by the Montana landscape she is passionate about.