Illuminating the darkness
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on September 28, 2016 9:57 AM
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Robert Lawrence Jr holds a painting he keeps in a suitcase in his art room at his home in Kinston.
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A self portrait by Robert Lawrence Jr., "The Dark Side of Me," portrays the artist's actual appearance and the thoughts in his mind. The portrait will change as Lawrence changes.
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News-Argus/SETH COMBS
Lawrence applies a fresh coat of paint to a work in progress at his studio desk at his home in Kinston.
KINSTON -- Robert Lawrence Jr. spends a moment squinting at the dark canvas before him.
He slips on his glasses and cocks his head to the side.
With a few strokes from his brush, dipped in his choice of light-colored paint, a sinister image begins to take shape.
The dark side of Lawrence's unique artwork reflects the legally-blind painter's level of talent.
"I think it kind of helps me in a way," he said. "Because for most people, the whole world with two eyes is three-dimensional."
Lawrence has been legally blind in his right eye since birth, and at 14, he lost his left eye.
Ever since, the 26-year-old artist has seen a two-dimensional world, he said.
Lawrence landed an opportunity at the Arts Council of Wayne County in March to display his work to the public for the first time.
He refers to his own work as "dark and obscure."
He said his "Behind the Lights" exhibit was considered a sideshow at the event, firstly because he was an unknown artist. Secondly, he said, he and his paintings were placed in a small room upstairs.
No one looked at his paintings on opening night for 45 minutes.
A stroke of good fortune came though when the curator set a bottle of wine on Lawrence's table. The marketing ploy worked instantly, and people began to take notice of his paintings.
Lawrence said before his successful first show -- and the many calls since from people interested in purchasing his paintings -- he had to overcome the challenges of his two-dimensional world.
"It used to be messy. Nasty," Lawrence said.
He accidentally drank a cup of paint water at age 15, and he once placed his hand in paint by accident and smeared it on his canvas and walls.
"I didn't care about it, I didn't want it in my life. But I kind of learned to like that paint," he said.
Born in Beaufort, Lawrence lived with his father, Robert Lawrence. He said he sketched drawings to avoid boredom, but his lines were crooked. He said he spray painted under bridges, but his paintings were faded on concrete walls.
He then entered middle school legally blind in both eyes, and a fight with another student and several eye surgeries later, he lost his left eye. He said middle school was the toughest time for him because being a teenager with one eye did not win him a popularity contest.
Lawrence, however, continued to sketch in books and spray paint walls into his late teens, but his life changed for the best -- and worst -- at age 21.
His life was nearly derailed for a crime he said was a mistake, but he said it was the turning point in his life.
Lawrence was sentenced to four years in prison.
"I screwed up really bad when I was 21," he said. "That's what I get for not studying the law. You get a younger girlfriend, it will mess you up. I'm glad I learned from that mistake though."
And in prison, he learned to draw, accurately.
Lawrence said with plenty of time in prison, he read magazines that were lying around a common area, and one rekindled his childhood pastime.
He said he found an edition of "Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine," and he believed he could paint better than the artists it featured.
But he was in prison. Lawrence was limited to drawing with a Bic pen.
"This is what I need to be doing because I had a passion for it," he said. "Sure enough, I started to pick up a pen and get more serious. Before I knew it, my lines were straighter, my colors were more solid, and I had a precision-organized method to doing everything."
Upon his release from prison in 2011, Lawrence threw away that Bic pen. He said he felt leery about painting again, but he said he couldn't avoid his passion and his calling.
"Paint's natural to me," he said.
Lawrence imagined himself stuck with painting sceneries and portraitures, but he said he couldn't live with himself if he couldn't paint what was in his mind.
"If I'm going to put my effort and time into doing something, I'm damn sure going to make it something you can't take a picture of," he said. "Best example, anything in the subconscious mind."
Lawrence moved to Kinston in 2015 to be on his own, and he said he experienced a strange phase in his life when he noticed that too many people think inside the box.
He quickly picked up a new way to draw characters.
Lawrence painted his odd-looking, box-headed characters on a canvas in a small room in his house. The walls of his art studio are covered with the paintings -- box-headed monsters, sci-fi characters and big-eyed bunny rabbits, all by Lawrence.
But the darkest painting in the house props against a wall behind Lawrence's studio.
A self portrait of Lawrence, "The Dark Side of Me", shows him sitting in between white and black box-headed creatures. A red box-headed devil rests on Lawrence's head.
He said the devil weighs him down while positive and negative influences tug at him.
He said he painted himself with one eye and with his various tattoos to portray his actual appearance and what's going on in his head.
"This painting's not done," he said. "It's not going to be done until the day I die. Every time I make a critical change to my body in some way, whether it be age or tattoos, I'm going to keep adding it."
Lawrence said he is currently painting for people who have specific requests. He said he is stepping outside of his box to paint non box-headed characters.
He moves his brush over the arm of one of his creatures, adding an extra line of light to the dark figure.
"This is never going to get old to me," he said. "Even if I don't make it anywhere with my art. Even if nobody finds it important enough to make a big deal about it, it's always going to be there for me.
"I'm always going to love doing this."