Lauretta Lowell's Page

Palm Desert’s Assemblage Artist, Lauretta Lowell, first became addicted to treasure hunting and collecting odd things at the young age of 7 years old, while living on military bases in Japan where her father was an Army Major. She would keep herself busy by collecting discards from other family’s trash containers (when they were relocated) and built sculptures and “tree forts”. 

Growing up, her mother, a fashion designer and painter, was a great source of inspiration for Lauretta. She spent her high school and college years living on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii surfing, batiking and designing bathing suits. Her artistic sense was also influenced strongly by the beauty of the islands, and the many local superstitions.

Leaving the islands in 1976, Lauretta moved to Santa Barbara, California where she started a career in marketing and a family.  She became interested in collecting unusual antiques and machine parts for her home, a converted horse stable on three acres.   Her 28 year marketing career took her to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Peru, Paris, England, Wales, Tahiti, and Australia. 

After the stress of her divorce, raising her two boys, and working 10 hour days, Lauretta had a stroke that took her short term memory, her ability to walk, talk, and write from her.  After five years of physical therapy, she began visiting junk stores, antique stores, and warehouses again waking up her creative juices. She found that she was drawn to vintage items from the 1930s-1950s. Her sense of humor and her self-imposed art therapy helped her heal greatly as she began creating mixed media collages and assemblages. 

In 2004 she moved to Palm Desert and in 2008 she started her business Whimsical Curiosities, showcasing her assemblage creations. Her assemblage sculptures, shrines, jewelry, mosaics are designed with the intention to capture your curiosity, make you smile and feel you are experiencing something you have never seen before.

Lauretta sells her work in local and coastal fine art festivals. She has been in galleries in Palm Springs, Fallbrook and Santa Barbara, California; Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, Michigan, and Seattle. You can see her work on her website at www.whimsicalcuriosities.com.