Artist Laura Marie Doore
Laura Marie is an independent artist and writer from the South West of England whose work refuses to stay inside neat little boxes. A self-described “struggling artist” with a restless imagination, she has spent years experimenting with an eclectic mix of artistic styles, mediums, and ideas — creating simply because she feels compelled to.
Her artwork moves between the thoughtful, the chaotic, the playful, and the deeply personal, often reflecting the unpredictable nature of the inner self. Rather than following trends or fitting into a single category, Laura often embraced exploration, allowing each piece to develop in its own way.
Alongside her visual art, Laura is also a writer. She is the author of the novel The Story With No Heading — a title born from the simple fact that she couldn’t think of one, and found that oddly amusing enough to keep. In addition to her novel, she has written a collection of short stories and poetry, often blending humor, melancholy, observation, and imagination in equal measure.
Early Life
Her father, Dick Doore, worked at the dog track and treated drinking like a professional commitment, while her mother, Angie, sold Avon alongside Laura’s German grandmother, Gisla — the nearest thing the family had to stability, routine, and functioning furniture. Dick fell for Angie instantly and she eventually agreed to go out with him after months of persistence that, by modern standards, might come with a restraining order. For the first six years of her life, Laura and her younger brother were largely raised by Gisla until cancer took her, and with her went the last sense of order. What followed was a childhood spent moving through around fifteen care homes before the age of fourteen — an experience that supplied Laura with both an alarming amount of life experience and the kind of material that either ruins a person completely or gives them exceptional humor. Her siblings were adopted out early; Laura wasn’t, having apparently been deemed “too damaged,” and was eventually returned to her mother, whose much older boyfriend promptly developed feelings for her when she was just fourteen. Somewhere between institutional neglect, family dysfunction, and the sheer absurdity of surviving it all, Laura developed the voice that now defines her work: sharp, darkly funny, and deeply human.
Personal Journey
Becoming the woman she is today was never an easy ride. Every trial, heartbreak, friendship, failure, and strange twist in Laura Marie’s life eventually became part of the foundation for this venture known as Twispodge. The people she met along the way were not always kind, but left marks nonetheless. Experiences that once felt impossible to survive — losing herself to stress, leaving her hometown behind, learning the difference between love and dependency, rebuilding after painful relationships, and facing the loss of her family through the courts — slowly transformed into fuel for her artwork and storytelling.
Laura has drifted through countless jobs and identities over the years, never quite fitting into the shape expected of her. She poured herself into other people, often caring for the broken as though they were her own children. In time, those experiences became inspiration rather than burden — characters, emotions, fragments of stories, and illustrations waiting to be created. All these traumas caused her to struggle with staying in one place for too long, whether physically, creatively, or emotionally. There is always the lingering fear of failure, of unfinished projects, of moving on too soon. But from that chaos came something permanent.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of a life that often tried to silence her, Laura turned survival into art. Twispodge is not just a creative space; it is a collection of memories, mistakes, grief, humour, resilience, and imagination stitched together into something honest.
Twispodge
Twispodge takes its name from the combined nicknames of Laura’s two favourite people — a small tribute hidden inside the strange little universe she’s created. At the centre of that universe are the Spodges: curious, comforting creatures that first evolved from an earlier piece called Golden Slumbers. During one exhibition, a genuinely decent man told Laura it was one of his favourite works in the show, and that small moment of encouragement became the push she needed to finally take her work — and herself — seriously. From there, Twispodge grew into something much bigger than art alone. Drawing from what she learned through CPT, therapy, and women’s aid groups, Laura created Twispodge as both an escape and a quiet act of rebellion: a reminder that while there are bad people in the world, there are also ways to protect yourself, rebuild yourself, and learn to love yourself again. Beneath the humour, oddness, and brightly coloured chaos sits a simple goal — helping people feel a little less alone. So come and join the Spodges on the valley of Gleedendore, where healing is messy, kindness matters, and absolutely nobody has their life completely together.