'Bernadette' (2019).
Lauren Mary Barnett is an American comic artist, graphic designer and painter, whose work has been featured in magazines like The New Yorker, the Washington Post, and Harper's Bazaar Korea. Since 2007, she has additionally created several webcomics and small press comic zines, all characterized by a sense of gentle absurdity. As a painter, she is noted for her surprising depictions of seemingly unimportant elements of modern-day urban life. Lauren Mary Barnett the cartoonist should not be confused with American triathlete Lauren Barnett (also born in 1984), British author and screenwriter Lauren Jane Barnett and the New Jersey writer/producer Lauren Barnett (b. 1990).
Life and career
Born in Buffalo, New York in 1984, Lauren Mary Barnett has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Vermont, where she pursued English & Women's Studies and Studio Art & Ethnic Studies. Since graduation in 2006, she has been active in the non-profit field of fundraising, working as managing director and/or event manager for the American Associates of the Royal Academy Trust in New York (2007-2014), the Center for Visual Art at MSU Denver (2015-2016) and Delivering Good (2016-2018), a New York-based non-profit for those affected by poverty and natural disaster. Between 2018 and 2025, Barnett was Director of Development and then Chief Operating Officer for Art21, a New York organization aimed at the education and promotion of contemporary art.
'Me Likes You Very Much'.
Comics
In addition to her day job, Lauren Barnett has been active as a cartoonist, painter, writer and illustrator. Among her main artistic influences are Joseph Cornell, Clae Oldenburg, Wayne Thiebaud, Sophie Calle, Julia Wertz, Jeffrey Brown and Lynda Barry. Debuting in 2007, her single-panel cartoons and short comic strips, published under the title 'Me Likes You Very Much', first appeared on her webblog and Tumblr page, and in later years on Instagram. In addition, she has created several zines and comic books with her comic strips, all characterized by absurd humor, weird goofy ideas and everyday observations, often related to animals, both from real-life and as anthropomorphic creatures.
In 2009, Barnett kicked off her self-publishing venture with no less than three zines: 'I'd Sure Like Some Fucking Pancakes', 'A Story About Fish' and 'Secret Weirdo'. These were followed in later years by 'Was That Supposed to be Funny?' (2010), 'I'm a Horse, Bitch' (2013), 'A Few Things You Should Know, Baby' (2020) and 'Worried Animals at the Met' (2025). In 2012, Hic & Hoc Publications released a "best-of" collection of Barnett's daily webcomic 'Me Likes You Very Much', which was nominated for a 2012 Ignatz Award for Promising New Talent. Other releases were made in collaboration with the Denver-based indie comic book store Kilgore Books, for instance 'A Horse, a Crow, and a Hippo Walk into a Bar' (2016), 'Unicorns of Planet Earth' (2017) and 'Ruining Your Cat's Life' (2021). In 2019, Tinto Press released Barnett's comic 'Bernadette', about a house cat with a more than average animosity against houseplants.
'New Things'.
Graphic contributions
In addition, Barnett has contributed stories and artwork to several anthologies and third-party zines, for instance 'HIVE 5' (Grimalkin Press, 2010), 'Candy or Medicine #14' (2011), 'Revista Larva #13' (2011), 'The Sorry Entertainer' (2011) and 'The Big Book of Small Press' (2011). In May 2013, Lauren Barnett and Nathan Bulmer co-edited 'The Hic & Hoc Illustrated Journal of Humor', a small press humor anthology for Hic & Hoc Publications with work by 28 contributors. Additional comics and artwork by Lauren Barnett have appeared in Block Club Magazine, Foxing Quarterly and Birdy Magazine.
One of Lauren Barnett's urban scenery paintings from Lambertville, New Jersey.
Fine art
Besides comics, Lauren Barnett has been active in other art forms. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows throughout Brooklyn, New York and Lambertville, New Jersey, among a couple of other places. A notable project was her paper mâché series 'In Case of Emergency', exhibited in 2020 at Desert Island comics in Brooklyn, New York. Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, these works of art captured what the artist "wished she could stockpile in her cupboards" through paper mâché recreations of canned and boxed goods. Reproductions of her fine art works have appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, The Washington Post and Harper's Bazaar Korea.
After years of residing in Queens, New York, Lauren Barnett settled in the small village of Lambertville, New Jersey, with her wife and their twin daughters. There, she has been using her clever powers of observation for a series of paintings and drawings of everyday urban life. Instead of choosing the obvious objects and sceneries, Barnett searches for intersting angles to capture the beauty of the unexpected, like the crisscrossing of powerlines, the poetry of shadows on asphalt or random objects on a table. In 2022, she was a resident at St. Nell's, a humor writing residency in Williamsport, Philadelphia, open to people of marginalized genders.
Comic published on Lauren Barnett's website.