Lori Murphy has been driven to create all of her life. As a girl in Rensselaer, IN it wasn’t uncommon to see her with a small film camera taking photographs of her friends and family. Back then, she had to wait over a week to get her photos back from development to see if they were any good. These days, though, she can get immediate feedback and know if she’s on the right creative track.

Lori graduated from Rensselaer Central High School and Ball State University with Art Education, Physical Education, and Education Technology degrees. She has been a teacher at South Newton High School since 1993. Through the years she has taught Art and PE and she has been the corporation candid/sports photographer and webmaster.

She has taught a variety of grade levels and media throughout the years but the two that she has been most dedicated to in her teaching as well as her own art work are Ceramics and Photography. Art has always had connections to technology but in the late 90s we saw the mainstream explosion of websites, digital cameras, and art or editing software like Painter and Photoshop. Lori began integrating those tools into her Drawing/Painting class. Eventually, she created an entire class that focused on computer graphics, website design, video, and photography.

Lori enjoys stopping action through sports photography and small-town Indiana and the beautiful country that surrounds it. Many of her fine art photos involve subject matter from around Northwest Indiana. Over the years, she has won several photography awards through the Jasper County Art League Annual Photo Show. In 2013 Lori won the Robert’s Camera Fan Photographer of the Game in partnership with the Indianapolis Colts. Her winning photo showed a determined swimmer gasping for air during the breaststroke. She had the honor and privilege of shooting the Colts vs Titans pregame down on the football field. In 2016 Lori was one of 29 Hoosier Women Artists awarded the honors of showing her work in the Indiana State House for a year. Her photo “Emergence” is witness to the emerging Midwest sun as it comes up on an early summer morning through misty fog over two ponds. In 2017 Lori was the Spotlight Artist for the Prairie Arts Council in Rensselar, IN and was featured in the organization's newsletter with an article.

Lori plans to passionately continue teaching and creating in small-town USA. The drive to stop the split second in time and share its extraordinary portrayal of what we don’t always get to see with the naked eye keeps her moving forward.