HELLO!
My name is Molly Lastra.
I'm an artist based in southern New Hampshire.
My work focuses on landscapes and environmental imagery.
ABOUT
Molly Lastra is a visual artist whose work explores the parallels between the body and the
natural world, reflecting the cyclical, ever-changing nature of both landscapes and the self. Living with
a chronic illness, she draws on personal experience to explore themes of fragility, growth, and resilience
through environmental imagery. Her paintings are shaped by a deep sensitivity to the body’s rhythms
and nature’s quiet transformations.
Molly holds a BFA in Painting and an MS in Psychology, a dual background that informs her
introspective and intuitive approach. She has exhibited throughout New England, New York, and the
Southeast. Her achievements include a residency at ChaNorth and an individual artist grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts. After fifteen years split between Boston and Charlotte, NC, Molly is
now based in her hometown of Manchester, NH. She teaches part-time, balancing her studio practice
with workshops and classes at the Currier Museum of Art, community outreach programs, and sessions
in her home studio, where she fosters creativity and connection through art.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My painting practice utilizes environmental imagery to symbolize fragility, growth, and strength. The landscapes and waterways I incorporate into my work communicate the parallels between the body and nature. The cyclical and ever-changing environment is reflected in me, and vice versa.
My current body of work plays with contrasting textural and tonal elements through repetitive mark-making. There is such playfulness between chaos and uniformity, and my work is a push and pull between the two. I construct fragmented and distorted imagery to convey the dichotomy between sickness and wellness. As an artist living with a chronic illness, and as a member of a creative community, I strive to normalize open and supportive conversations about mental and physical health. My painting practice is intended to start those conversations.