Dear Lawrence Drawings 2019-2022, 65 Drawings In honor and in memory of Lawrence Carroll, my mentor, who guided me and took me under his wing when I was just starting out in the late eighties. These works are deeply connected to themes of teaching, time, passing the torch of creativity, earth, water, and flora—elements central to Lawrence's own art. Flowers often appeared in his paintings, some of which, recently exhibited, resembled growing plants or "Growing Paintings." I worked on these drawings exclusively in my upstate New York studio, the same place where Lawrence moved to before he passed. These are the flowers he would have seen, spanning the seasons. There are sixty-five drawings in total, one for each year of his giving life. Each drawing is coated with wax, the medium Lawrence always used. The brown color on the paper comes from clay residue left by my students during their pottery assignments in my classroom. The paper was used to protect desks, which I collected at the end of each class. Some of the papers were so beautiful that I began saving them without knowing what I would eventually do with them. They sat stored away in a drawer for years, only to emerge after Lawrence passed. It felt right to use the earthy residue paper, touched by my students and is symbolic of the cycle of learning, growth, and legacy.
Dear Lawrence Drawings No.1, 2020
Pencil, wax, flora, clay residue on paper from my students clay pottery assignment
22 x 28 in (55.88 x 71.12 cm)
