Laura was born in Huntsville, Alabama and began taking private oil painting lessons in high school, working with basically the same limited palette she uses today. She studied painting at the University of Tennessee, then switched majors to Finance. Later she studied painting at Kennesaw State University, majoring in Visual Art with a minor in Italian. While living in Atlanta, Laura studied life painting with Marc Chatov and was in his advanced mentoring group. She continued to study with him after moving to Birmingham in 2010. She moved to New York for two years where she completed the Core Program at Grand Central Atelier. In addition to the Core Program, where Justin Wood was her mentor, she undertook additional studies with Kathryn Engberg and Dale Zynkowski. Other notable teachers include Dawn Whitelaw and Michael Shane Neal. Laura currently lives in Birmingham with her husband and two Bassett Hounds.