Lauren Kotkin is an early childhood educator living in Washington, DC. She has a masters degree in using the arts in education and formerly was the education director at a creative childrens museum. For many years, Lauren had a business sewing fabric baby gifts. She recently put the sewing machine away and turned to collage because after working with young children, paper and glue seem to have stuck.

Artwork in The Leaves Project was created from photos taken in Prague of the intricate mosaic sidewalks. A native of the city ignores them the way a District native nonchalantly passes the White House. But a tourist sees the beauty and creates art...from art.