Todd Lawson
Saint Louis Cathedral
Acrylic on birch wood panel
White wood floating frame
2021
JULY 2022
TODD LAWSON
Series: SPIRITS
When we remember the places we once visited we are often struck by a child like wonder wrapped in a feeling of nostalgia. Places we may visit again but never with the same sense of “new” as the first time. It is as if our memories are locked to our younger perceptions of ourselves and our lost past.
We distort and individualize places, amplifying the good and slowly forgetting the bad. This series of works manifest those feelings through small, innocent child-like “Spirits” as they return to places where people once visited. For these initial paintings they wander New Orleans. A city I have a fond memory of visiting with my family, rich in history and personality and vibrant with the life of its people. TL
The famous St. Louis Cathedral, found in the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans. The cathedral is depicted in a distant future overtaken by nature but still standing as a child-like figure sits at the fountain lost in thought. The figure represents our own memories of places we visit for the first time when we experience feelings of discovery and wonder. Feelings that we can never reclaim if we revisit.
