# Laurie Doctor
*Painter, calligrapher, writer, and teacher*

Laurie Doctor is an American painter, calligrapher, writer, and teacher whose work is built on the meeting of language and image, held together by contemplative practice. Her paintings often take impermanence as their subject, the passing of time and cultures and landscapes and lives, and she is drawn to ancient timeless forms such as mythology and the scratched markings left on cave walls, where writing is still image. Her work builds up over months of overpainting, so that whatever was there before is covered by the current now, and the textured surface that results keeps the life of every earlier generation of images inside it even when they can no longer be seen. She is also known for the original alphabets she invents and writes with, which have been featured in the journal “Alphabet.”

Laurie taught painting, drawing, calligraphy, and book arts at Naropa University in Colorado for over twenty years and has taught at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in conjunction with its exhibitions. For twenty-five years she has kept an active lecture and workshop schedule across three continents, offering classes in Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and throughout the United States, with regular workshops in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Italy. She teaches improvisationally and has never once used a textbook, reading each room and shaping the days around the people actually in it.

Her artwork is held in permanent collections in the United States and Europe, including the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, the Klingspor Museum in Offenbach, Special Collections at the University of Colorado, New Editions Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky, and the Harrison Collection in San Francisco. Her articles and art have appeared in “Alphabet,” “Letter Arts Review,” “Type” magazine, “Triggerfish Critical Review,” “Somerset Studios,” “Women in the Arts” magazine, “Quadrant,” “Naropa Magazine,” and “Print” magazine. Her monthly letter, “A Silver Fraction,” reaches more than 2,000 active subscribers with musings, creative prompts, poetry, and techniques.

Stillness is essential to how Laurie works and to how she teaches. She is impelled by the necessity for listening and for uninterrupted hours that counter the demands of clocks, computers, cell phones, and deadlines, which is why phones and watches stay out of her classroom entirely. She describes being a maker as a gate to presence and otherness, a way of bringing something invisible into visible form, and her classes are built to hold that door open. On the subject of her strictness, she likes to quote her husband, who points out that they still come back.

Learn more about Laurie Doctor and her work by visiting her [website](https://www.lauriedoctor.com/), or follow her on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lauriedoctor/).

**Connect:** [Website](https://www.lauriedoctor.com/) · [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/lauriedoctor/)

## Retreats led by Laurie Doctor

### Line, Lettering, and Landscape Retreat with Artist Laurie Doctor in France
September 22 - 29, 2027 · Teyssode, Occitanie, France · $4,550
Instructors: Laurie Doctor
[Details](https://uptrek.com/ai/content/retreat/line-lettering-landscape-retreat-artist-laurie-doctor-france) · [Book on uptrek.com →](https://uptrek.com/retreat/line-lettering-landscape-retreat-artist-laurie-doctor-france#book)

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**Last updated:** 2026-08-11