Laurie Hornik, (known to her students as Ms. Hornik), is a writer, advisor, English 7 teacher, mixed media/collage artist, and chair of Ethical Culture Fieldston School’s English Department. She is very dear to the ECFS community and has been working at Fieldston for 32 years! She was 22-years-old when she first started teaching at Ethical Culture (where she met her husband), and for the past twelve years, she has been teaching at Fieldston Middle.
Although she has many talents, some of her students might not know that she is a mixed media extraordinaire. Recently, I had the chance to interview her on her art.
As a child, Hornik was always creating objects out of paper for fun. Later in her life, when she was a young mother, she would create collages for holiday cards, announcements, etc. However, she really got into mixed media art in 2014 when she considered making art for a profit on Etsy. Her collages are inspired by a variety of things including medieval art (unicorn tapestries), woven and painted objects, as well as other art mediums. Her collages are also sometimes inspired by her own writing and her own personal experiences.
Nowadays, Hornik uses paper, wood, beads, glue, thread, and other 3D objects that she comes across to create her masterpieces. When asked what advice she would give to someone looking to try out a new art, she said, “ I look at a lot of other people’s art. I look at other people’s art and I just don’t force it. I try different things and let them be mistakes.” She adds, “I think that Instagram is great for that. I follow a zillion artists on Instagram who I don’t know. Sometimes they follow me back, which is really exciting!” Hornik continuously experiments with her art and finds different inspirations explaining, “I feel inspired by their art and I just try things and if I don’t like it, I don’t have to keep it, I can try something else.”
It was such an honor interviewing such an accomplished person who has so many passions and interests which she can share with her students and community! To learn more about Hornik’s artwork, you can visit her classroom (M212) where she displays some of her vibrant works.
