Veronica Lawlor's Blog

I’m auctioning this original mixed media collage named REBIRTH to raise funds for emergency aid for families who have been devastated by the wildfires in Los Angeles. I’ve chosen to create this fundraiser for the Red Cross*, a leading non-profit humanitarian agency.  From January 29th until February 5th, you can participate by donating to the Red Cross and sending your receipt to me via email to verolawlor(at)gmail.com.

To donate, visit their site HERE and type in your one-time donation amount.

Then select “California Wildfires 2025” under the I Want to Support banner:

Donate $10 for one ticket, $50 for five, or as much as you’d like – each chance is a $10 donation. I’ll assign the numbers as emails arrive, digitally spin the wheel, and post the winner on February 6th. Art will be delivered matted and framed for hanging. Thank you for helping me help those affected by these fires.

*90% of donations to the Red Cross are passed forward to those in need. The other 10% is used to run the agency. Read more HERE.

Please join us for the opening reception of Collected Light: An Exploration of Scotland, Ireland, and the Hudson Valley, featuring work by Veronica Lawlor, Polly M. Law and Christie Scheele, at Albert Shahinian Fine Art in beautiful Rhinebeck NY. 

The exhibit consists of drawings, paintings, prints, collage and assemblage, a rich variety of work inspired by the time the artists spent together on location during the summer of 2024. 

An artist’s talk will be offered on April 6 from 2 – 4pm, and each artist is donating one artwork for a raffle to benefit the Catskill Center for Conservation.

Collected Light runs through June 22nd.

A 1/5 % margin is not a mandate. If you are part of the 48.5% then let your voice be heard.
Drawn at ‘The People’s March’ in Washington Square Park on January 18, 2025. It already seems like it was about six months ago.

#peoplesmarch #newyorkcity #artistsfordemocracy

As we move closer to the presidential elections here in the United States, the immigration issue becomes hotter and hotter. Claims of criminals streaming through open borders conflict with the situation I encountered last February, when I was invited by the Earth Church in New York’s East Village to make some drawings of their warming center for migrants. There I found a group of men seeking asylum from political violence in West Africa, eager to learn English and find work in the United States. I also found a group of dedicated New Yorkers who donated items or spent time in the space on the corner of Avenue C and 3rd Street to help them to keep warm and maintain dignity in their plight.
Below are a few of the drawings from my visits; I’ll post more in the weeks ahead:

Lim, one of the volunteers, sorts the many donations from East Village residents into bins.

This is Savitri, a volunteer who seems to manage the daily operations of the warming center. Here she is hard at work at the sewing machine, custom fitting donated shirts for some of the men. As she sewed she explained the problem that many of the men faced: “They are in the neighborhood because St. Brigid’s [church] is nearby, where they line up for a ticket to get a spot to sleep at one of the shelters scattered around the city. But women and children have first priority, and sometimes these men have a ticket number as high as 15,ooo. So they sleep in the park, on a  subway, wherever. Sometimes they get a summons and a $100 fine for sleeping on the subway.” As I listened I wondered how they could possibly pay that.

The warming center provides them with a place to rest, charge their phones (and connection to home) and learn some English from the volunteers who come to offer lessons. The English lessons are well attended, and the men learn phrases such as, ” I can wash dishes.” “I can do deliveries.”

The men have an opportunity to charge their phones, and rest a little bit in a warm place. Several times a day, some of the Muslim men could be found praying in the corner.

Most of the men who were in the center when I visited were from Guinea, and their path to the US was a long and arduous one: By car from Guinea to Senegal. By air from Senegal to Turkey, and then to Colombia. By car or bus from Colombia across Central America to get to Mexico, from there by car or bus to Tijuana, bordering with the US, where they presented themselves to request political asylum. Reminded me of the stories I’d read about Ellis Island, and the hardships of sailing steerage from Europe across the Atlantic. Different era, same circumstances. I wish I knew why we romanticize the people in one situation and villainize those in the other.

I was slightly hesitant to draw at first, not sure how the men would feel about me documenting them and their circumstance. It turned out that they were eager to be drawn and recognized, and there was an actual line of men waiting to have their portraits made. A commonality we all share, to be known and be seen. Each man seemed to enjoy signing their portraits; I’ve blocked out their last names here to preserve their privacy. Below are Nabi and Abdul, who described themselves as brothers and sons of Africa.

In response to the fear mongering stories of unknown and unnamed immigrants used for political points, I will post their portraits in the next few weeks between now and the election, to show a few of the faces of the many who come to the US seeking political asylum and dignity of life. The same as my ancestors did, escaping the potato famine in Ireland. The same as the ancestors of so many Americans did, that is, the ones who were lucky enough to come freely and not in chains.

As I drew the men, my husband spoke with some of them who were fluent in French, as he is. We asked them why they left their country, and the reasons they presented were similar:

“I was beaten and jailed for political involvement.”

“I was targeted for being aligned with a political party.””I feared for my safety and the safety of my family.”

“I want to be free. I want to bring my mom here. My mother sold her chickens to pay for my voyage.”

I’ll post more portraits and drawings from the warming center in the weeks to come. I hope that these drawings in some small way can encourage Americans to see those emigrating to our country as individuals, not as a nameless, faceless threat.

“Every dead child is a loss for all.” This past Thursday, hundreds of people dressed in black gathered in a silent, solemn processional through midtown New York City, to mourn the thousands of children killed during the October 7th Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has followed. The procession was more like a funeral than a political rally. People marched silently in twos to a mournful drumbeat, holding up signs with photographs of Palestinian and Israeli children who have died since early October, and carrying effigies of deceased babies wrapped in white cloth. Led by the Jewish Elders for Palestine and JVPNY, the group wound its way up 6th Avenue from Bryant Park to Times Square, and then down a few blocks to a plaza where the mourners, some in tears, laid the effigies of the babies down in front of a banner that read, “Ceasefire Now.”

Below are the drawings I made of the procession. The events of the last few months have been so terrible – a brutal attack by Hamas on Israel, followed by the unceasing bombing of Gaza by Netanyahu’s government, with thousands killed and a subsequent humanitarian crisis. I don’t pretend to have any answers to this horrible situation. All I know as we enter 2024 is that too many children are dying. It feels futile, but still, I hold hope for peace in the New Year.

Interviewed by someone from NBC news, one of the women holding the banner asks, “Is taking lives in retribution the only calculation?”

Escorted by police, the mourners make their way up 6th Avenue, holding up photographs of smiling children, each with the caption, We Mourn, and their names in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.

The group made their way through the theater district as holiday tourists looked on, adding their plea for the children to the hundreds of messages blaring down at us in Times Square.

At the end of the procession, the mourners lined up and, one by one, placed the effigies on the ground.

Some people kissed the small bundles before laying them down, others were in tears. One of the effigies had a baby doll inside, and seeing the small face hit me right in the heart.

A Jewish Elders representative said they had made 500 effigies for this procession, but that was a small amount in comparison to the number of actual deaths.

There were people of many backgrounds in the procession, including Jewish and Palestinian people, mourning the children together. An irate woman came by to yell at the group, but received no argument.

The message of the group was clear: The children are suffering.

Some color studies I made in Versailles, one VERY hot summer day in 2010, during a Dalvero Academy workshop.

I can still feel the heat coming off of these pastels!

Some color studies I made in Versailles, one VERY hot summer day in 2010, during a Dalvero Academy workshop.

I can still feel the heat coming off of these pastels!

Left: Crossing Fires, 24×30 acrylic and collage on wood panel Right: Lidgerwood Crane 2, 11’14, ink on paper

My first solo exhibit with Emerge Gallery in Saugerties, NY, from July 15, – August 27, 2023.

View the exhibit on Artsy HERE

The show features my on-site reportage drawings of abandoned brickyards of the Hudson Valley and the paintings they inspired, as well as my reportage of the 2017 deconstruction of the 1930s era Kosciuszko steel truss bridge, and the paintings that those drawings inspired!

Additional work from the bridge series can be viewed in an Emerge Artsy exclusive companion exhibit HERE.

Leftt: Dismantling, 11×14, Ink and mixed media on paper Right: Energetic Felling, 22×28, Acrylic on canvas

The show includes this drawing of the very last piece of the bridge to be demolished, and the painting that it inspired. I was so honored to draw a part of history.

The Last Piece, 11×14, Ink and graphite on paper

The Last Piece, 24×36, Acrylic on wood panel

Glass artist Kellie Ann Krouse fabricated this small section of the bridge in glass for the show, to further elevate the significance of the structure to New York City through the materials.

The opening was full of family and friends old and new. Please stop by the show if you are in Saugerties – gallery hours are Fridays and Saturdays 1 – 6pm and Sundays 1 – 5pm.

Big thank you to Robert Langdon of Emerge Gallery as well as the Woodstock-Byrdcliffe Guild for last year’s artist residency, where I did much of this work.

Super proud of this colorful abstract 30″x40″ painting, commissioned by International Flavors and Fragrances, to celebrate the launch of IFF NEO – a new citrus flavor built from natural compounds. The piece represents the subtleties of flavor in NEO- peely, fresh, fruity, floral, and woody.

The IFF team visited my studio, filmed the process of painting from first mark to finish, and created a gorgeous series of videos for the campaign launch – links below.

Video LINKS:

1:shorturl.at/zJLPR

2:shorturl.at/rtw47

3:shorturl.at/aeoQW

Thanks to Julita Cavallo and Megan Church for the direction and Chris Canberg for the gorgeous footage and editing.

This was a fun one!

#painting #team #abstractart #veronicalawlorstudio #iff #iffneo #studio1482

Like millions of people around the world, I watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on television this morning.

As I watched I felt compelled to make a few drawings.

Whatever your thoughts on the institution, history and relevance of the monarchy, there is no denying that the Queen lived an extraordinary life, and rose to the occasion that history demanded of her.

The comment on television that stood out to me most was this: ‘She was evolutionary, never revolutionary.’

I am paraphrasing and unfortunately can’t credit who said this, but it sums up her 70 year reign well.

RIP Queen Elizabeth.

Posted by Veronica