Who I Am.

Lawrence Scott Parkinson
430 Parkovash Avenue
South Bend, Indiana
46617

I am very much influenced by my childhood in the cold lakes and deep forests of northern Michigan. My work reflects the diversity of my family who farmed in the up north and those that worked in the factories of Detroit and Flint in the southern part of the state. I was able to watch the rural, the suburban, and the urban become assimilated as the factories shut down and the cabins of the autoworkers went on the market over the years. Many of them are still empty and, likely, will remain so for quite some time. Some of them have become the homes of men and women too exhausted by city life to continue. The struggle in the north became something more desirable. These lives are the lives I knew. The loggers, farmers, autoworkers, and random laborers were the people who I watched, and listened to, deal with the problems of life. Not enough money, someone was sick, a bad year for corn, people buying those “damned” foreign cars, how the hunting and fishing was nothing like it used to be, who was addicted to what, who has died or is dying. This was my childhood. My mother taught me to read before I went to school. She would not have a dumb boy, maybe a foolish one, but not dumb. It was both good and bad to read so early. I was able to see and understand some things a few years before those around me. This also caused some alienation but, then again, alienation is the spine of growing up. The ability to read and think differently at a young age caused me, a sensitive and tiny boy to begin with, to be even more raw with my emotions. There was always a good reason to be sad or happy or angry and to also inevitably cry with empathy, sympathy, and fatigue.
My work shows this influence in a substantial way. I am not able to see a person without being curious about their life. If I cannot know what I need I will make a guess using the clues I can see, and make their life up. My work is intuitive and constantly questioning the stories we surround ourselves with. I write about the trees and animals I know but I also involve these entities with the strange humans that share their world. It is not a simple life to live but it is a devilishly interesting one if we look past the surface and are not afraid to make some guesses and take some chances.
Thank you.
Lawrence Scott parkinson