Marla Hansen

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, December 30, 2005

Marla Hansen is a Madison native who currently lives in New York City. A classically trained violist who has branched out into popular music, she performs her own original songs accompanied by guitar-style viola. Her music is quiet and eclectic, with the mellow tone of the viola providing a refreshing new texture to the singer-songwriter format. Blending indie/folk style song writing with an alternately pure and wild voice, Marla's performances are intimate, vibrant and always surprising.

Marla is the violist for My Brightest Diamond
(formerly AwRY,) and has collaborated with Sufjan Stevens, Oneida, Kanye West and many other wonderful people while living in New York.

Music