Colleen McLaughlin
was born in Burlington, Vermont on Valentine's Day 1962, the tenth of eleven children.
Creative expression for the pure joy of it has been a life-long pursuit. Inspired by her
great-aunt Anna, a Proctor, Vermont librarian for 50 years, Colleen began writing poetry
and stories at age seven, drawing throughout her school years, and made her singing debut
on stage at age five. Following graduation from High School in 1980, Colleen toured East
Coast music clubs as a professional singer/keyboardist with the rock/R&B band "Wish,"
and has performed in local Burlington venues with several music groups since 1985.
While raising her two children in Burlington,
Colleen pursued a career in Recreation Services within the health care industry; working
with senior adults in a long-term/sub acute care setting. The encouragement of
self-expression through music, story-telling, visual arts and crafts, and spirituality has
been a recurring theme in Colleen's approach to working with these individuals. In 2000,
Colleen wrote and received a $8,400 grant from the Vermont Department of Aging and
Disabilities to fund a year-long Pastoral Care Services position at her facility. Colleen
also expanded community involvement through collaboration; incorporating
inter-generational art programs, theater groups, performing musicians, poets and crafters,
and most recently therapeutic horticulture. In support of other local artisans, Colleen
routinely writes articles for the monthly newspaper "North Avenue News,"
profiling and highlighting individual artists.
Colleen's life was profoundly altered in January
of 2004, when her 20-year-old son was deployed to a combat zone in Iraq, with other
members of the Vermont National Guard. In avid opposition to the policies and occupation
of Iraq, Colleen became politically active; working with pro-peace groups and military
families opposed to the war. Colleen's activism played a crucial role in helping to pass
one of the first resolutions in support of "bringing the troops home" to be
placed on a state ballot (and overwhelmingly approved by voters) on town meeting day.
In support of Vermont military families
experiencing financial hardship, Colleen organized "Operation Yellow Ribbon," a
12-hour event which raised $3,000 for the Vermont Military Family Assistance Fund. OYR
included local business donations of food, raffle items, entertainment, and a four-hour
music festival featuring 12 local musicians and bands.
The re-emergence of Colleen's own work in the
visual arts was also in response to varying degrees of intense emotion. Rather than
reflecting the darkness of current times, Colleen was instinctively compelled to explore
the beauty and fragility of a world at-risk. Most nights, Colleen spends time in her home
studio creating one-of-kind, figurative mixed-media sculptures, painting, and capturing
fleeting moments on her camera whenever she can.