Richard Laurent, a longtime part-time instructor of illustration at Columbia, died last month.

In an email to the Columbia community announcing Laurent’s death, Interim Senior Vice President and Provost Suzanne McBride said Laurent was “a valued colleague and a remarkable person.”

Colleagues remembered him as an artist, educator and advocate for faculty and students. 

Laurent taught at Columbia since 2007 and was known to many colleagues as “Ric.”

Drawing from his own experience, both as an oil painter and a cartoonist, he helped students develop both technical skills and a deeper understanding for visual storytelling.

In an interview with Voyage Chicago in 2018, Laurent said every time he went into his studio in the Fine Arts Building at 410 S. Michigan Ave., he was always discovering some universal truth about things.

“My painting process has nothing to do with gathering information that is all ‘white noise’ to me,” he said. “But exploring visual conundrums in paint has become a spiritual journey for me that, I am certain, inspires many other artists as well.”

Earlier this year, he exhibited an oil painting titled “Mr. Wonderful” in the Sophomore Show, an instructor and staff art showcase, at Columbia’s Glass Curtain Gallery.

A celebration of his art and life was held on Monday, June 1 in Itasca.

Copy edited by Venus Tapang