Laurence Pierce creates conversation through art

A lifelong artist and director of the AfricanWinter Gallery in Dorchester, Laurence Pierce has more time to devote to his art these days. A former teacher and art specialist at the Head Start Program at Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury, Pierce considers himself a professional artist now that he’s retired.

Pierce is one of several artists whose drawings currently are on display at the Strand Theatre through Friday, July 31. The theme of the exhibition is to express emotions or feelings. Pierce does so with a drawing titled After the Fall, which he says depicts “a sense of madness that the world has experienced since 9/11.”

Speaking with the Banner by phone, Pierce discusses his art and his latest project.

What inspires you to create the images that you do?

Laurence Pierce: That’s a big question. I sculpt. I paint. I draw. The pencil is actually my basic medium. When I get a little frustrated, artist’s block [like writer’s block], I always go back to pencil.

How long does it take you to create a painting or a sculpture for an exhibit like this?

LP: It’s funny. That’s such an open question. I did a painting Going to Chicago, which depicts the migration of blacks from the south to the north. I had a studio on Norfolk Avenue about three, four years ago. That painting stood in the middle of my studio for about a year because I couldn’t resolve it. The people were standing in line going to buy tickets, just to leave the south. I finally walked into my studio one day and it just dawned on me that I needed a final figure in the painting. So, I added an African woman looking out at you. That’s how I resolved the painting. It doesn’t always happen that way but it can be crazy enough to happen that way sometimes.

As an artist are you hoping to create conversation through your work?

LP: That’s absolutely true. Whatever inspires me. I don’t always try to convey messages. It’s just that this drawing left me so traumatized I couldn’t respond. I’m from New York. I was born in the Bronx. It was so personal. It took me a couple of years to even express what I felt about that. Not everything I do is message oriented. A lot of times it’s just whimsical. I found these old-fashioned telephones that used to hang up on your wall in the kitchen. I turned them into a face.

What are you working on now?

LP: I’m working on a tribute to jazz pianist Art Tatum, who was considered one of the finest jazz pianists of all time. I created a sculpture in Marquette about five years ago with the intention of getting funding to have this fabricated and made into an 11-foot sculpture. It consists mainly of piano keys.