Ld Lawrence
The Mad Scientist Series

We are accustomed to reading through a line of type or a mathematical formula as if the black lines on paper were transparent markers pointing to a meaning that resides disembodied in the mind. Ld (her preferred spelling) Lawrence restores a sense of the visual, concrete nature of written languages. Her sources include Egyptian hieroglyphs, prehistoric cave paintings, chemical diagrams and children's drawings—in other words, that class of expression in which the physical form of the sign for an object or concept is invested with something of its visual qualities. Scattered with simple symbols adapted from the worlds of science and nature, her paintings thus offer a portrait of the world as seen through the mind's eye. They offer food for contemplation about the nature of meaning and how we come to reproduce the world in thought.

These paintings bear their philosophic cargo lightly. Despite the scientific and mathematical reference, their overall spirit is exploratory rather than didactic. In "The Big Clock," for instance, an outline drawing of a clock face serves as backdrop for a playful inventory of symbols from the animal and plant kingdoms. The schematic representations include duck feet, a stingray, an undulating worm, a mushroom, an ice cream cone and a laboratory beaker, painted riotous colors and swirling kaleidoscopically over the surface. In "Dividing Organisms" symbols are less sharply delineated and half merge with the pulsating blue ground as if caught within the primordial stew, suggesting a parallel between the origins of language and life itself.