Laura Best is a California native. She is the owner of newly established- Best Music and Arts’  studio gallery, where she teaches piano and art classes. Her studio space also serves as a custom picture framing and art gallery for other local Artists to display their work, as well as a recreational venue for paint party events during weekends. Laura loves working in several mediums, including watercolor, oil, acrylic, and pencil. Her first art series was completed in 2019 using watercolor pencils. The following year she exhibited the completed collection for her first solo art show, titled “Expressions,” where she exhibited over a dozen of her watercolor pencil portraits. In this series Laura sought to raise awareness of Human Trafficking, celebrating the unique outward characteristics of women, while sharing the beauty within. She created a variety of faces to portray her own character and moods that all began with the first work, in which a girl with an untamed mane appears to be yelling, with her hands over her ears, or perhaps her headphones. Laura has intentionally titled this piece ”Untitled,” because of the chaotic emotion that it conveys, and the idea of feeling extreme opposite emotions at the same time, making it impossible to choose only one. Laura has completed a wide variety of commissioned works including: landscapes, family and pet portraits, and most recently local home and business watercolor illustrations. She is currently working on an ink and watercolor series of downtown Bakersfield Restaurants, celebrating the local eateries that have endured the tests of time, particularly during the 2020 mandated closures.