Today we’d like to introduce you to Nancy Goodman Lawrence.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Since graduating from UCLA with a degree in art many moons ago, I have never stopped being a completely dedicated artist. I have always been pulled into my studio regardless of what else was going on in my life, including family life and teaching. My studio is my haven.
I can count at least ten bodies of work that I have completed over the years. They include a series of clothing images that are stand-ins in for portraits; a foray into watercolor (which I had sworn never to try), and three groups of collage paintings made almost entirely of maps – these include portraits, the figure and a group of abstract “concentric narratives.”
My work continually evolves as I try to be my own best (or worst) critic and have the guts to discard what doesn’t work and move on to make improvements.
The past couple of Covid years have been interesting from an art perspective. In the early stages of the pandemic, I decided to make art using only what I had in my studio in order to avoid going into stores. I wound up turning to paper and made several pieces using layered paper. Some of these had a political undertone, something I had avoided in the past.
Most recently, I am working on paintings that have invented shapes. The shapes are like characters in a play. They tell a story. I’m not always entirely sure what the story is, so the paintings for me are like looking into a mirror and scrutinizing my image to see what it reflects back to me.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
An artist has no lack of obstacles and challenges. I believe that these simply go with the territory. We need to be solitary in the making of our work, which is juxtaposed with wanting to be seen. The latter involves navigating social media and all of the supposed steps that artists are “advised” to take in order to put their images out into the world. I believe that the pandemic allowed some of us to take a breath and reevaluate what is important in our art lives.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m especially known for my map collages, and although most of these are older works, I was recently the featured artist in a map art show at Santa Clarita City Hall.
As a member of Women Painters West, I currently have a painting and a self-portrait in the Brand Art Gallery show entitled “100 Years: Women Painters West – A Century of California Women Artists.” This exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of the organization. Each participating artist chose an image made by a past member and made a new work using this image as inspiration.
My piece in this show is called “The View Through.” The image is a landscape with an opening in a mountain that looks through to the sky. The work and the title raise the question of “Where are we going now as we look through to the future?”
I think of myself as a deadly serious artist with a very playful side. I hope that my work reflects this.
I welcome visitors to my studio anytime. Please send me an email if you are interesting in seeing my work in person.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: NancyGoodmanLawrence.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nancygoodmanlawrence/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyGoodmanLawrence/
Image Credits
all images taken by Nancy Goodman Lawrence
