Current Work – James L. Lawton Studio

Houdini’s Escape: An Immigrant’s Dilemma, 2016

Houdini’s Escape: An Immigrant’s Dilemma

$Locust and the Snares in Life II, 2004, distressed acrylic, direct cast bronze apple tree branches and leaves, direct cast cicadas, printed images on acrylic, guinea fowl feathers and bronze snares, 10” W x 29” H X 10” D / 26 x 76 x 26 cm In Locust and the Snares in Life I and Locust and the Snares in Life II, direct cast bronze apple tree branches are adorned with bronze cicadas covered with gold leaf and are mounted on distressed acrylic. The apple tree branches are intended to foster connotations of the Garden of Eden and fertility. This life alluded to in these works is delicately held in balance with the apple tree branches next to the distressed and fractured acrylic. The bronze cicada is used to reference the life cycle of the commonly referred to thirteen-year or seventeen-year locusts and is used for its association of how the locusts have been seen as constantly consuming. The house like structure is held in balance by bronze tree branches wrapped in a wire snare. The wire snares reference entrapments of life as well as trapping for nourishment. These elements all support a fabricated acrylic structure covered with historic pictures of people and animals. The worlds of spirit and nature are evoked through the feathers and reference to flight.$

$Locust and the Snares in Life II, 2004, distressed acrylic, direct cast bronze apple tree branches and leaves, direct cast cicadas, printed images on acrylic, guinea fowl feathers and bronze snares, 10” W x 29” H X 10” D / 26 x 76 x 26 cm In Locust and the Snares in Life I and Locust and the Snares in Life II, direct cast bronze apple tree branches are adorned with bronze cicadas covered with gold leaf and are mounted on distressed acrylic. The apple tree branches are intended to foster connotations of the Garden of Eden and fertility. This life alluded to in these works is delicately held in balance with the apple tree branches next to the distressed and fractured acrylic. The bronze cicada is used to reference the life cycle of the commonly referred to thirteen-year or seventeen-year locusts and is used for its association of how the locusts have been seen as constantly consuming. The house like structure is held in balance by bronze tree branches wrapped in a wire snare. The wire snares reference entrapments of life as well as trapping for nourishment. These elements all support a fabricated acrylic structure covered with historic pictures of people and animals. The worlds of spirit and nature are evoked through the feathers and reference to flight.$

Detroit’s citizens gathering to repaint Three Trusses Plus/Pink Landscape, Cass Park, Detroit, Michigan.

$Fruit of Our Labors: This work references the current world economy. The mirrors suggest looking back on ourselves as a nation. In looking back, one can pause and question how we each individually have been affected by the economy. This pause may also give rise to contemplation, of the past and generation to come, as the Federal currency note states, a bill “…is legal tender for all debts, public and private”. As in earlier works such as Locust and the Snares in Life I and Locust and the Snares in Life II, a direct cast bronze apple tree branch is adorned with a bronze cicada covered with gold leaf and supported by distressed acrylic. Those works, and the apple branches evoke the Garden of Eden and fertility—“Fruit of Our Labors”. That life is delicately held in balance between the apple branches and distressed and fractured acrylic. The bronze cicada symbolizes a life cycle of the thirteen-year or seventeen-year locust plague, as locusts have been used as voracious consumers. The wire snare references the entrapments in life as well trapping for food Media: Constructed of acrylic, brass, direct cast bronze from natural forms, gold leaf, and U.S. currency. Dimensions: Variable with the main form measuring 57” X 23”x 23” with a small form, a bronze apple covered in currency, placed in close proximity.$

[Show thumbnails]