ARTIST HAS REASON TO CALL HIMSELF GLITTER FINGERS
by Karen Schafer
The Gazette
September 9, 2009
Matthew Lawrence likes talking in what he likes to call sound bites. And to prove his bite-ability, the artist likens his mixed media paintings to "Las Vegas or a bad acid trip."
Sure, Lawrence's one-liners are amusing, but his canvasses can take both silly and serious turns. Bathed as they are in chartreuse and Pepto-Bismol pink poster paints, then showered in glitter, it's hard not to feel shock and then awe.
His choices of subject matter offer a darker and more complex interpretation. Both the 1950s coloring book cutouts of children being chased by a car and the blond girl floating in a whirlpool of blue glitter surrounded by skulls can make viewers wonder about the artist's motivation.
Lawrence insists his subjects are easily understandable: The coloring book kiddies are reminders of his English childhood; the blond girl is a portrait of his daughter, "sort of like [Shakespeare's] Ophelia." As for the toys, old license plates and broken mirrors glued and fastened to the canvases, he has become addicted to searching for flotsam in his own trash cans along with the craft store aisles near his home in Lancaster, Pa.
"Amid the chaos, it's obvious that Lawrence has a keen sense of composition," explains Elyse Harrison, who is presenting an exhibit of Lawrence's work at Gallery Neptune, her Bethesda art space, which opens Friday and runs through Oct. 10.
"Up close, your eye wanders, always finding new things," Harrison continues, adding that the painter is not here to stimulate the viewer's visual senses, that his "own aching" comes through.
The artist might be hurting, but he bristles at the suggestion that his paintings might come with some sort of message.
"I would rather just make bland entertainment than have a message," Lawrence says.
When asked about the possibility that his use of recyclables is making an environmental statement, Lawrence bellows, "I'd trade a painting for a Hummer."
Lawrence's response may be visceral, but Harrison believes that the idea of "preaching" makes him reel. In fact, she contends his work is filled with messages; it's just that when it comes to politics, his canvases aren't left, right or straight down the middle.
"Like a comedian, his paintings have lots of humor shaded with seriousness," she points out.
Despite the painter's good-natured blustering, he does see the irony in taking trash and reinventing it into $5,000 paintings.
Nor is the high school art teacher-by-day unwilling to admit coveting the good life.
"I once named a show ‘Dear God Make me Rich and Famous,'" he recalls.
Art collector Karen Migdail "fell in love" with Lawrence's paintings about two years ago while attending the opening of his last Gallery Neptune exhibit. It was the depiction of a guy lying on his back smoking a cigar along with two skulls that won her over.
Conjuring up memories of growing up in Mexico City, where "skulls are iconic, the painting is dark and then there's a ducky in one corner," she says.
While Harrison is happy to report that the artist has a growing client base, Lawrence believes youngsters are his biggest fans.
"If 5-year-olds had credit cards, I'd be the most famous artist in the world," he boasts.
Lawrence had a traditional art education. He earned an undergraduate art degree from Brighton University, then a master's in printmaking from Temple University in 1990. Once he saw the work of American outsider artists, his artistic direction changed.
During the last decade, the artist switched from printmaking to painting, having concluded that "woodcut is such hard work." Adding objects to his canvasses came next. Undaunted by what Lawrence perceives as his own limited illustration abilities, he uses an overhead projector to outline many of his images.
Whatever his artistic motivations, the self-proclaimed packrat is maniacal about the found objects piled up in his basement. Today he is particularly happy with the beer bottle cap a friend recently gave him, since he usually attaches "sissy nonalcoholic bottle caps" to his paintings. With unusual brevity, the artist mentions that he stopped drinking a couple of years ago, having decided that sobriety "was better for the whole family."
Happiness can be fleeting; when it comes to appropriating his preteen daughters' forgotten Happy Meal toys, trouble ensues.
"Sometimes we have quite the standoff," he confesses.
Yet once ownership is resolved, the girls know better than to touch daddy's toys, paints or glitter.
Matthew Lawrence's mixed media paintings will be on view from Friday, Sept. 11, through Saturday, Oct. 10, at Gallery Neptune, 5001 Wilson Lane, Bethesda. An artist's reception is planned for Friday, Sept. 11, 6 to 9 p.m., and an artist's talk is set for 4 p.m. Saturday, October 10. Call the gallery at 301-718-0809 for exhibit hours, or visit www.galleryneptune.com.