Arizona Hellcat
Cactus Rose
Chuck Full O'Fun
Cowgirl's Moon
Money, Women & Guns
Laura Lakey was born and raised in New York by a family that passed on their great appreciation of the arts to her as a very young child. Every weekend, her parents would take the kids into the city to roam the museums, experience the symphony, opera, Broadway plays, Greenwich Village galleries, etc. They also provided Laura with private drawing and painting lessons at an early age. She graduated from the State University of New York in New Paltz with a B.F.A.
Her first job out of school was as a television illustrator for MDCC's television production division where she worked on educational videos in conjunction with the BBC and PBS. It was here that she met her husband, John, a cartoonist and illustrator. They started a freelance illustration studio and produced hundreds (if not thousands) of published illustrations for magazines, book covers, comics, and children's products. When John was recruited by Fox Feature Animation in Phoenix, they relocated to Scottsdale and Laura decided to give fine arts a try.
She did a series of paintings that represented the old west in a historically accurate way and in a very realistic style. The paintings were quite successful, but she felt that her true interests lay elsewhere. Being an illustrator, she had always had a strong affinity for the works of the great illustrators N.C. Wyeth, and John Leyendecker. She also loved the whimsy and innocence of the pin-ups from the 1940's and 50's. She was inspired to come back to her roots as an illustrator and create a series of cowgirl pinups that pay homage to both B-western movie heroines and pulp magazine covers.