About Lauren
I'm an art historian based in Portland, Oregon who writes non-fiction and fiction. I'm an author, an award-winning educator, a consultant for museums and TV programs, an editor, and a video producer. I'm a recovering academic and a mostly retired professor of art history.
As a kid, I was terribly shy. Books transported me to different worlds where I felt brave and outspoken. Middle Earth. Oz. Wonderland. Narnia. Earthsea. Sunset Towers. Shadyside. The worlds of Nancy Drew or Choose Your Own Adventure. I would get lost in books—and then feel compelled to write my own or draw them. Stories helped me find my own voice.
Before this adventure into novel writing, I was a longtime college professor of Art History who spent a lot of time crafting exciting stories to hook students’ interest. Paint made from crushed bugs! Thousands of stone figures carved in remote caves! A urinal that changed the course of art! Art history at Disneyland!
Making art history accessible and interesting to everyone—not just college students—is my passion. I need to use this PhD for good!
I want everyone to fall in love with the many exciting, weird, and even enraging histories of art. I love to find creative ways to help people engage with art history, including looking at Disneyland, Epcot, and Disney/Pixar films! They is chock full of amazing art historical references.
I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest in the United States with my wonderful husband, two quirky kids, and two eccentric cats. When I'm not writing or kid-wrangling, I like to spend as much time as possible outdoors exploring nature, traveling the globe, and visiting Disneyland often. A life goal of mine is to visit all the National Parks in the United States. Well, that and get my kids to believe that art history is cool. Oh, and I'm a co-founder and The Captain over at ARTSQ! Just another way to make art history fun and accessible to more people.
If you really want to know more about my background as an academic professor, then press read more if you dare. I earned a Ph.D. in Art History from UCLA. I had the good fortune to be inspired by smart, amazing, insightful people when I was there. Venturing out into the work force, I was an Associate Professor at Pepperdine University, and an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). These were very different places to teach and learn, and I feel fortunate to have met many incredible people at these institutions! I've also taught at UCLA, the University of Oregon, and California State University, Long Beach. I love the challenge of teaching to different student populations—it is humbling. I teach many different types of classes about the arts of Latin America (from prehistory until now), the U.S., Europe, surveys of world art history, and more of this and that. I mainly focus on art made between 1400–1800—you know, just 400 years. In the classroom, I love to find ways to engage students with games, interactive activities, collaborative working methods, and more. We spend time talking about how to become better storytellers. I've written a lot of public-facing art history essays and made a bunch of videos about art and its histories. I've also published academic articles and books, primarily about art in Mexico, Peru, Italy, and Spain. One book, Holy Organ or Unholy Idol? The Sacred Heart in the Art, Religion, and Politics of New Spain (Brill, 2018), focuses on the significance of the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and its accompanying imagery in eighteenth-century New Spain. You can see more of this academic work at https://lkilroyewbank.org/ or on Academia: https://independentscholar.academia.edu/LaurenKilroyEwbank
Zodiac Sign
Virgo
Favorite Fiction Book
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Favorite Non-Fiction Book
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Favorite Disneyland Attraction
It feels like choosing which of my children I love more, but it is Pirates of the Caribbean
Favorite food
All the food.
Favorite movie
Toss up between Pixar's Up and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Favorite Artwork
Hahahahaha, that's impossible (but let's say the Irish medieval Book of Kells)
Favorite Museum
The National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
Favorite City
Toss up between Mexico City and Paris
Number of tea mugs on my desk currently
At least 4