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#1 Hot Coffee with an Artist

Series of conversations by Nina Mdivani

A quick coffee with New Orleans-based Lawrence “LAW” Parker III

LAW’s loose acrylic and gold leaf mimics the golden light of “spring leaning into summer,” the time when revivals used to take place in LAW’s childhood. Abstract iterations of beige, mauve, turquoise, black and carmine create precarious symphonies of color. All of them have golden figures in the center, reinstating the artist’s credo that we’re each in the process of becoming, while our human foundation is at the very center of our being. 

LAW
LAW, photo courtesy of the artist  

Nina Mdivani: You are in your favorite coffee or tea spot. Where is it located? What is the name of the place? What are the three things you see? 

LAW: I’m sitting inside Café Du Monde located in New Orleans. I see a guy playing the trombone, people lining up for coffee and Beignets, and the Saint Louis Cathedral. 

NM: What is the most exciting thing that is coming up for you in the next 1-2 weeks?

L: I would say my art show in New York, at the Black Wall Street Gallery. 

NM: Why is the exhibition titled Freeman Revival: Inherited Past? What is it that ties all these 13 works together? 

L: It’s an ode to my grandfather, Rev. Dr. Willie Freeman, Sr. I grew up in his church and it was mandatory to attend his church revivals. His sermons, actions and love are the reason I’m here today. 

NM: How do you choose a specific color combination for specific works? 

L: One of my grandfather’s favorite sayings was, “We are all golden.”  This is the reason why every person in this body of work is painted in gold. I start with gold, then everything flows from there.

NM: You chose to move from New York back to the south, why? 

L: My son Brilliant was born during the pandemic. It was really frantic in New York at that time, so we took a bit of a hiatus back south for safety and to be closer to family. 

LAW
Court of Two Sisters, 2021
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
72 x 58 in (182.88 x 147.32 cm)


Your happiness is mine and so are your sorrows. We will see them both through together. Cherish each other’s companionship and existence for as long as we live. Our childhood experiences and feelings are entangled together, just like Jackie and Carolyn, my mother and aunt in 1968. Two bodies with the same blood in them and so our hearts are connected.
LAW
A Cross to Bear, 2022
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
82 x 68 in (208.28 x 172.72 cm)


We must suppress our attitude of opposition to those things of God. This is the only acceptable attitude of a true great disciple of life.
LAW
Give Me This Mountain, 2022
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
82 x 63 in (208.28 x 160.02 cm)


Revival happens with and through others, but it always begins within. You have to leave an irreplaceable impression with the life you’ve
been given. This is for the Free and the Brave.
LAW
Jubilee All, 2022
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
71 x 48 in (180.34 x 121.92 cm)


The first time you learn how to play an instrument can be on any corner in the city of New Orleans. On any given day, if you listen closely, you’ll hear the kids tuning their horns. I was once that kid practicing on the porch.
LAW
Up a Little Higher, 2022
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
83 x 70 in (210.82 x 177.80 cm)

Our souls are filled with conscious light energy. As we grow to understand our inner spirit, we begin to surrender to what is and the journey of freedom. We are no longer captured in the man-made illusion of the world and materialism.
LAW
Spiritual Continuity, 2022
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
83 x 72 in (210.82 x 182.88 cm)


We are carriers used to enclose a message to the world. Each of us is distinct, beliefs, intentions, words. We’re here to connect and adapt.
LAW
You Grow Up Where You Are Planted, 2022
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
83 x 69 in (210.82 x 175.26 cm)


My grandmother Rose planted her seeds in fertile ground uptown. She watered them uptown. She talked to them uptown. And like magic, we all blossomed like Wild Magnolias. You bloom when you are loved. Love is how you stay alive.
LAW
Felicity St., 2021
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
82 x 68 in (208.28 x 172.72 cm)


My bloodline started on the granite streets of Felicity. Felicity Street makes beautiful people. I’m one of them. No wonder the word felicity
means intense happiness. There are no memories of my childhood without this street.
LAW
A Life of Lagniappe, 2022
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
82 x 81 in (208.28 x 205.74 cm)


Down in New Orleans, on Super Sunday, it’s fire on the bayou in 1979. Everyone is fully dressed, even the po-boys. Their faces peek out
from underneath the brim. It’s where timeless character, culture and aesthetics meet. Passing a good time, free from all the cares of life.
555 W
LAW
Carousels, 2022
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
80 x 83 in (203.20 x 210.82 cm)

So many of us came up in the hard knocks of everyday life, but we treated every ward, every block, all the hallways and court ways of the
projects as if they were acres of land. It wasn’t just about what we saw or heard. We recognized and appreciated the importance of everything around us. The things we didn’t have somehow led us to everything we needed.
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