Sensory People — Lauren Spencer King, Painter
Sensory People is an interview series about the specific, sometimes unexpected things that help people find comfort & beauty in daily life. It’s the questions I always want to ask — and the reminders we all need.
This week: painter Lauren Spencer King. I love any chance to be in Lauren’s orbit — she’s the epitome of still waters run deep, comfortable with the unseen but felt. And she has the best laugh.
Lauren comes from a matriarchal line of painters and jewelers, and you can feel that inheritance in her — a family attunement to shape, texture, and tone. Her watercolors, of things personal and universal — flowers, a scrap of fabric — are endlessly alive, built up through layers of light and color over months.
What's a feeling you're always wanting more of in life?
Connection. Ease. Pleasure.
What are your favorite sensory objects?
Color. It’s what I spend most of my day thinking about when I’m in the studio - so many hours where I mix and layer color after color. Part of my work is very much about how concentrated and intense color can have a sensorial effect on the physical body - what pleasures and sensations arise when one looks at the golden yellow of an iris, or the vermilion red of a ruffled dress. Watercolor is the most vibrant of mediums, because it acts like stained glass, where light passes through the paint and bounces off the surface of the white paper back at you.
What scents instantly comfort you?
Wild garden roses. The elusive smell of irises. Sandalwood. My mum’s English muffin bread fresh out of the oven early in the morning - and the smell of her closet. The plants and soil of Wyoming in the summer sun. Mexican marigold after I’ve crushed its leaves in my hands. Fresh ginger tea. A fire going during the winter.
What emotion or memory would you bottle if you could?
When I was little, my grandmother (who was an artist) would wash my feet in the sink before I could walk on her white carpets. I would sit on the counter, looking at all the bottles of perfume and a giant stuffed peacock she had next to the sunken tub. She was very eccentric. Her hands were so soft as she carefully soaped up my feet under the warm water. She would always give me one piece of candy while this ritual was being performed, candies she got on a trip to China, where you could eat the clear wrapper. I’ve searched for years to find them.
What words, things, people or places bring you back to yourself?
Dancing at home, with headphones on. Laughing so hard I can’t catch my breath. Having an involuntary audible reaction to something beautiful. Swimming. Empowering the people I love. When nothing works out like you planned, but turns out better than anything you could imagine. The sounds of hummingbirds. Finding a penny on the street. Overcoming something that seemed impossible. The view of the water from the Louisiana Museum.
What's your favorite BODHA?
For years, I have been in search of a scent that feels like it could naturally live on my skin. Something that could be a bridge for who I am on the inside to exist on the outside. A tall order. I have found a few that were very close. And then last summer I smelled PLANTS. It quenches my thirst for something I didn’t even know I was or wanted. TENDERNESS is also a true love. The mix of warm woods with the rose and a hint of green wild shiso is so alluring. I love wearing it to bed.
