Columbus based artist to share work May 1 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church |

Columbus Ohio-based artist and activist Laurel Hobden will be sharing her art pieces and banners at 11 a.m. May 1 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, as part of the ongoing Homecoming 2022 (last weekend in July) first Sunday series. The event is open to the public.

Local artist Bonnie Bolen will be displaying two Ukrainian-themed pieces of art.

The abbreviated service will feature the annual dancing the May pole with the congregation. Live music by Mike Mullen, Betsy Kalter and the African Drumming Group will be enjoyed during coffee hour immediately following the May pole dancing. Feel free to bring your favorite instrument to play along with the live music. For more information contact Annie Warmke [email protected] or (740) 252-6295.

At Memphis State University, Hobden received the prestigious Creative Achievement Award, giving her an entire room in the university gallery to display her work during the annual student show. As a student ,she led a Peace and Justice group on campus. Her first banner was a collection of student’s hand prints to be displayed at a nuclear power protest.

Hobden’s mixed media social commentary work includes weavings about nuclear issues and mixed media sculptures concerned with environmental degradation. A recurring theme in her work is the earth bleeding at man’s hand. She has created banners for Community Bill of Rights and the Ohio chapter of the Sierra Club’s Ready For !00. Twice she has marched in Columbus’s Doo Dah parade with her banner exposing GMO health related issues.

Most recently she mass produced what she calls a Bandaner – ‘a bandana that is a banner’, pushing for the Green New Deal. She also created a dandelion garden flag with a painted image from local Columbus artist Pilgrim Kambitsch, that discourages people from using pesticides.