Laurel Epps was born and raised in Southern California and has been creating art most of her life.  She received her B.A. and M.A. in 2D Art with a Printmaking emphasis.  Her corporate career was in the computer graphics field using her artistic skills in different ways.  In 2000, she and her husband chose to follow their hearts and move to Homer, Alaska. 
 
After moving, Laurel changed professions briefly.  The opportunity presented itself to become the owner and operator of a natural food store she called Home Sweet Homer.  After her store closed at the end of 2004, serendipity struck when a printmaking overview course was offered at the local college campus.  Attending that course, along with several painting courses helped remind her that creating art was what she was born to do.

Laurel spearheaded the creation of The Old Inlet Printmaking Studio in 2005 when she and three other artists pooled their resources and purchased a small etching press and everything necessary to create collographs, woodcuts, silkscreens and monoprints.  In 2006, her mixed media piece ‘Gliding Upward’ was selected to be shown in the Juried Art Show at the Pratt Museum entitled “Going to Extremes”.  She was also a participant in “The Process of Printmaking” show sponsored by the Homer Council on the Arts.