As a child, Laura was always fascinated with the variety of plants growing and blooming in her backyard. While attending a grade school without an art program, Tesdahl dreamed of being a teacher. She discovered her ability to draw when required to take an art elective in high school.

Encouraged by her art teacher, Tesdahl applied for a scholarship to attend Saturday art classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design. After receiving the scholarship and attending the classes, she decided to pursue a career in Art Education. As a graduate from the University of Dayton with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a K-12 teaching certificate, the National Art Education Association recognized Tesdahl as the undergraduate Art Educator of the Year in 1995.

Tesdahl began her teaching career in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. After two years of teaching art at the high school level, she relocated to Chicago and began teaching art to middle school students in Park Ridge, Illinois. While teaching, Tesdahl continued to take classes in painting and photography. She always found herself getting caught up in one tiny section of a painting for hours or zooming in closer with her camera lens. Working in this fashion led her to scale down her size and begin working in the miniature format.

A weekend field sketching class at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois rekindled the passion that she had for plants and introduced her to the Botanical Illustration Program offered there. As a result, Tesdahl began to take a variety of classes in botanical illustration and colored pencil techniques. Tesdahl’s preferred method is using colored pencils as a medium due to the detail that can be achieved along with the rich colors that can be created through layering techniques.

Nature and its process inspire Tesdahl’s work from a bud about to blossom to a leaf withering away.  Working from life, a gesture or human quality within the piece captures her interest. As you explore her work, note how the Dahlia buds appear to be in conversation, one coercing the other to blossom or how dying leaves curl and turn away as they lose their life. She is drawn to subjects that have subtle and vibrant tones of color within them.

After relocating from Chicago to the Indianapolis area in 2006, Tesdahl remained dedicated to her art and began exhibiting her work in the Annual Miniature Fine Art Show at Artistic Designs Gallery, Art in Hand Gallery in Zionsville, the Indianapolis Arts Garden, and Broad Ripple and Penrod Art Fairs. Although Tesdahl loves the process of creating, her true passion is teaching others. In 2009 she returned to teaching by opening her own business The Sketch Pad Art Studio-Brownsburg which focuses on teaching foundational drawing and painting techniques to students of all ages.