What Happens When You Create Without Chasing Perfection| Laura Silverman, Montserrat Serra Nonell, and Nicole Pietranton

What happens when we stop rushing and take in what’s around us? That’s the quiet thread running through the work of Laura Silverman, Montserrat Serra Nonell, and Nicole Pietrantoni. In their art, we’re not looking at loud declarations or carefully polished ideas—we’re stepping into slower moments. How light moves across a city, how fabric softens with age, or how folded paper can carry a story. It’s a kind of perfection that isn’t about flawlessness but presence.

Each of these artists brings something honest: a curiosity about everyday places and objects, and a way of making things that feels rooted in lived experience. Laura brings us to the trails and corners of Baltimore that might go unnoticed. Montserrat gently weaves memories, family ties, and a love of texture into comforting and thoughtful pieces. Nicole plays with colour, paper, and structure in a playful and quietly meaningful way.

From talking to them, we’ve learned that creativity doesn’t need a big moment to start. Sometimes, it begins with a crayon in childhood, a ballet performance that lingers in your memory, or the habit of turning what’s around you into something that tells a story. Their journeys aren’t about following rules—they’re about staying curious, finding joy in the process, and seeing beauty where others might not.

Laura Silverman on Finding Meaning in Light, Place, and a Slower Pace

Growing up in Baltimore, Laura Silverman always had a pencil or crayon in hand and wasn’t shy about using any surface. That creative spirit never left. Now a painter working just outside her hometown, Laura is drawn to the places most people pass by without a second thought. A worn trail. A field near the edge of town. She finds these scenes, often on long walks or while working plein air, and brings them back to life in her studio.

Laura paints quickly, leaning into her instincts and allowing her hand to lead without overthinking. “I work with a sense of immediacy and confidence in what I do,” she says. That trust in her process has grown over the years, shaped by her study in France, the influence of Impressionists and Fauvists, and a lifetime of paying attention to light, texture, and change.

Right now, she’s returning to Baltimore, exploring how the city’s shifting light and landscape tell quiet stories about identity and belonging. Whether in a local park or a gallery abroad, Laura’s work invites us to pause, look closer, and notice what we might usually miss.

I investigate the ways in which plants, nature, and ecology are intertwined within the ever changing, yet ever present landscape, and how the local environment shapes one’s identity.

To learn more about Laura, click on the links below.

Montserrat Serra Nonell on Creating Comfort in a Tangle of Fabric, Colour, and Memory

For Montserrat Serra Nonell, the work doesn’t start with a concept—it begins with colour. “That’s where the dance begins,” she says. From there, she adds fabric, stitching, handmade dye, and textures that speak of softness, time, and how things fade.

Living and working in Granollers, just outside Barcelona, Montserrat creates abstract paintings and textile sculptures that feel familiar, like something you’ve touched before, even if you can’t explain why. Her materials aren’t just supplies—they’re part of her story. Recently, she’s been looking into her family history and how threads of spiritual connection show up in everyday objects and rituals.

Montserrat doesn’t try to simplify life’s changes. Instead, she gives them room. She creates a space where emotions can breathe through her thoughtful layering and sense of quiet beauty. Her work doesn’t rush to answers—it permits us to feel.

While her style has grown and shifted over time, one thing stays constant: her commitment to letting the process lead. “I want to offer a sense of shelter,” she says, ” even when things feel uncertain.”

For me, everything comes out of colour. I feel called by colour, and that’s where the dance begins with the textures and composition.

To learn more about Montserrat Serra Nonell, visit the links below.

Nicole Pietrantoni: Folding Paper Into Stories That Move

Based in Girona, Spain, Nicole Pietrantoni makes paper sculptures that are anything but flat. Her work often starts as an accordion book, printed with photographs, ink, or digital layers. Then she folds, paints, reconfigures—and the piece becomes something new: a wave, a pattern, a landscape you want to walk into.

Nicole grew up in a creative family, where making things was part of daily life. Her mother and grandfather showed her how to turn ordinary materials into something beautiful, and she’s carried that approach with her ever since. “I see being an artist as a way to push back against a culture that privileges consuming and buying,” she says. “Be a maker.”

She’s also an educator, a traveller, and a big believer in collaboration. Her residencies worldwide have helped her reimagine traditional techniques through a modern lens. She easily switches between digital and analogue methods, not to chase novelty but to explore what these combinations can say about how we see and experience the world.

With every fold and layer, Nicole asks questions about permanence, nature, and the quiet rhythm of making. Her pieces aren’t just visually striking—they carry a sense of time and presence that makes you want to lean in.

The world needs more artists and visionaries!

To learn more about Nicole, click on the links below.

In speaking with Laura Silverman, Montserrat Serra Nonell, and Nicole Pietrantoni, one thing becomes clear—art doesn’t have to be loud to leave an impact. Their work is shaped by paying attention to what’s often passed by: a trail at dusk, a piece of worn fabric, or the rhythm of folding paper into something new.

They’ve each shared what keeps them grounded—nature, memory, movement, or making something with their hands. We’ve learned that creativity can be found in the most minor things and grows through a mix of trial, intuition, and just showing up for the process.

Their stories remind us that art can live quietly alongside daily life. It can come from the ordinary and still mean something significant. And maybe, most importantly, it can help us see the world—and ourselves—with more care.

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