Lauren Grabelle: Sugar Rising

Lauren Grabelle: Sugar Rising by Deanna DikemanSeptember 1, 2024

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If you have ever had a sick pet, you will understand my attraction to the story Sugar Rising. When your dog starts acting odd, you might be getting a subtle cue that something is wrong. You wish that your dog could talk and tell you how they are feeling. As a doting dog owner-photographer, Lauren Grabelle was taking plenty of pictures of Sugar from the time of puppyhood. But when Sugar became ill, Lauren kept making photographs as she coped with Sugar getting sick and sought care for her. Lauren calls this story “a species-spanning look at health, happiness, illness, diagnosis and recovery.“

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Sugar Rising

In 2005, feeling very disconnected from nature while living on the Jersey Shore, I decided to invite another animal species to live with me. Not too long after my Weimaraner, Sugar, arrived in my life, it became clear that NJ was just not big enough for her high-energy needs nor did it meet my own needs to be even closer to the natural world. So, in 2010 we moved to Bigfork, Montana. Finally we were where we were supposed to be: humbled by the earth on a daily basis, and creatively inspired by the simple things like a walk in the woods or a stroll around the neighborhood.

In 2015, at the age of 10 and after joyous years of running free and wild in NW Montana, Sugar started to slow down. Age? Arthritis? After a few visits to two different veterinarians, I was told that it was likely both. Then one day in September of that year, just 2 days after our most recent appointment, I awoke to Sugar being completely paralyzed in her hind legs. After 12 days of paralysis and pushed by a third vet, we finally went to Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Then, after an MRI, a diagnosis of discospondylitis (a staph infection in her spinal column likely caused by a UTI), and antibiotics, within two days Sugar was walking again – wobbly but walking.

Sugar Rising, my first solo exhibition, was on view at the Animal Health Library at Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine from September 2017 through January 2018, and at Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s Healing Arts Gallery March through September 2018.

This exhibition is a celebration of the human-canine bond, the creative spirit that bond unleashed, the wonders of technology and medicine that saved Sugar from this difficult-to-diagnose paralyzing spinal infection, her remarkable comeback, and the MRI that saved her life. Sugar, my best friend and muse, has graced the pages of many publications (including The Bark and Barron’s Weimaraner Complete Pet Owner’s Manual), the walls of fine art galleries across the country, modeled in a Perry Ellis ad campaign, and spent 12 days in the Bob Marshall Wilderness with me during an artist residency. The story is a broad overview of her varied and adventurous life including her slow, undiagnosed decline to paralysis, to her complete recovery as told through editorial and fine art imagery. –Lauren Grabelle

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Originally from New Jersey, Lauren Grabelle moved to Montana to heal the wounds that are created by living in the most densely populated state and being so isolated from nature. Her photography falls in the matrix where fine art and documentary meet, where she can tell truths about our relationships to other people, animals, nature, and ourselves. Her work is about empathy.

Lauren majored in cultural anthropology at NYU, with a minor in American history. Photography/film studies included technical and theoretical courses at Parsons, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, International Center of Photography, Center for Photography at Woodstock, and the Eddie Adams Workshop V, with such luminaries as Nan Goldin, Mary Virginia Swanson, William Abranowicz, Lester Lefkowitz and Ben Fernandez, among others.

Her photographs have been included in exhibitions in galleries and museums across the US and Europe, in two Montana Triennials, and in 2018 at Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai, UAE. In 2021 her series, The Last Man, was recognized by LensCulture as a winner in the international photo competition HOME ’21, in 2022 as a Critical Mass TOP 50 winner, and in 2023 was shortlisted for PhEST in Monopoli, IT, as well as being part of UnBound12! at Candela Books and Gallery. In 2022 Ken Burns included her photo, Tommy In His Car, in his book Our America: A Photographic History, one of only 12 images included by a living photographer. Other projects have been featured in print and online in Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, High Country News, Noema, Humble Arts Foundation, Der Grief, Lenscratch, and others, as well as awarded inclusion in American Photography 10, 17, 36 & 39.

Follow Lauren on Instagram: @laurengrabelle