ABOUT MY WORK:
STATEMENT JOSEPH LAWRENCE
www.lawrence-studio.com
An artistic statement is a work in progress. As life goes on, my artistic process is apt to adapt to innovative ideas and current events occurring in the world.
If I were asked about my philosophy, I would say that I am a Romantic. The contemplation of nature inspires ideas of spirituality for me. My concern for ecology is a part of this belief, and an organizing principle of my work.
When beginning a new artwork, I start by sketching a generic landscape, combining it with images suggesting the forces of nature, loneliness, and anxiety. The artists whose work contains those elements, and whose work strongly influenced me, are Hopper, Munch, Dubuffet, and those called “outsider artists.”
The materials I use for painting are oils and for drawing, pastels. Oils are my choice of painting medium because its slower drying time makes revisions easier. My drawings are done with pastels in order to work with color and experiment with color pallets.
My working method is to work slowly. I begin with only a sketch of an initial idea. Over time, the concepts, composition, and color pallet are apt to change. The symbolic images that frequently appear in my work are the following: houses, trees, and roads. The houses may have solid forms or may have an invisible wall, exposing some event happening behind the scenes. Trees benefit the environment: they are ideal signifiers of spirituality and nature. Roads are used as a device to lead the eye in a certain direction. They also map the passage of time from one moment to the next.
My most recent exhibitions were about hate groups at Puffin Cultural Forum and at Local Project Art Space. I have also exhibited at the Leslie Lohman Gallery, Hudson Guild Gallery, and with an assortment of non-profit organizations.
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