The Gilded Bats

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Friday, February 29, 2008

With a lineup of fiddle, banjo, guitar, and washtub bass, The Gilded Bats play rockin' old-time string band music - from driving dance tunes to crooked modal tunes, from lonesome mountain ballads to rough and rowdy songs.

The Gilded Bats self-titled debut CD, funded in part by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council, was released in October 2007. The Gilded Bats are part of the Mud Dauber Records family of recording artists.