Creator Record
Metadata
Name |
Lawing, Eric |
Dates & places of birth and death |
B. 1954, Thomasville, North Carolina |
Nationality |
American |
Notes |
"I always played in the woods. Had favorite places to go, always in the woods or creeks. One place I loved in the summertime, you had to walk to miles in the sun to get there. Hot. Had to clear a passage thought briars. It made a doorway into these cool giant woods. Little undergrowth. Contained." Today, Eric Lawing similarily repeats that journey in paint. Whole body and being along a charted course, tearing through a tangle of emotional briars into a cool, giant consciousness. Lawing's paintings are about the size and wieght of a solid door. Vertically, they are his basic height, his arm span width, the width of a well worn path. "What went there affects me. Sense of the tragedy of it. The woods in general. The competiton for life. The feeling of it is a big part of my work. Death and life. And whatever the animals are doing." Before the Woods series of paintings, Lawing was working primarily in a monochromatic scale. He went into the woods looking for color. he left the woods and found more color. The past two years, he has been painting in a studio exposed to the elements under his house, where he created the works in Between Earth and Sky. "Rather than staying in one place, painting is like an exploration of larger amounts of consciousness. If you get far enough into it, the consciousness is more connected the way I believe that all consciousness is connected." The grid mau symbolize strength, like reinforcing mesh in concrete. It supports time and matter, emphasizing that the painting ultimately refers only to itseltf. With humble vision, Lawing allows existing reality to enter the doors of perception unchallenged. Therefore what exists is invariably beautiful. |
Relationships |
Minda McLean (wife) |
Places of residence |
Greensboro, North Carolina; Wilmington, North Carolina |
Role |
Artist |
Titles & Honors |
Began teaching at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 1996. |
Education |
B.A. in Art from UNCW in 1979 M.F.A. from UNCG with a minor in art history in 1985 |
