Student does 12-painting series on Burroughs
| December 15th, 2008
Hannah Lodwick, a senior at Free State High School, did a series of 12 paintings that focuses entirely on William S. Burroughs. I wish that more high schools would encourage this sort of approach to interdisciplinary art, especially when it comes to work that has a sordid past relationship with the censors.
She spent a lot of time planning the Burroughs series, which she completed for an advanced placement class. Her mother is a Burroughs fan, and Lodwick grew up with his artwork around the house.
“I started reading his books in late junior high school,” Lodwick says. “And then I’ve kind of been attached to it ever since. He’s probably my favorite of the beat writers.”
She used Burrough’s “cut-up” style — in which he took words and rearranged them into a random order — for several of the pieces.
“One of the things we discussed was a lot of people outside of Lawrence are familiar with Burroughs’ work, but they may not be familiar with everything about him,” says Carolyn Berry, art teacher at FSHS. “How to put his life into a span and show the connectedness with it — not just in Lawrence but in other places — was part of her problem to do. She did a great job at it.”
No accidents: November ArtStar drawn to explore Burroughs’ ‘magical universe’ [LJWorld.com]
