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This is my darling god-daughter "Almi Girl", modeling one of my "Fashion Sculptures" from the "LA Party Hat" series. Seen here, she was the star performer at one of my art & fashion shows held in Annapolis, Maryland. The show was part of fundraising efforts to assist in the development of America's first African American State Museum, "Banneker-Douglass Museum". 1978....................................................I love to make happinest. I love my family, and things that make laughter. I love "people"... and children of the world. I am "AMERICA'S FIRST STATE ARTIST" - Named to the post in 1976 by the Governor's Commission on African American History and Culture - Maryland. "They were really the good ole days. The State of Maryland set me up in a twenty-three-room mansion in Mt. Vernon, just near the Washington Monument in downtown Baltimore. I had two large gothic sky lit studios, separate ceramic and sculpture studios and my own art gallery in the building. It was wild, extremely creative, educational-supreme, and just too much fun. The State of Maryland had launched efforts to create the first STATE Black museum in America, I was right in the center, overseeing all the wonderful things happening - it was truly a great time in history, seeing the birth of America's first State black museum come to be. The artifacts, the arts, the music (sweet music - there were both Stieff and Steinway pianos on the first floor of the building. (Note: California African American Museum in Los, Angeles, was the second State African American Museum - 'That is'...'Museums operating directly under State Law and Administration' - This museum was founded by my dear friend from Annapolis, Maryland, Aurelia Brooks). - Cab Calloway, Alex Haley, artists, writers, historians, explorers, researchers, dignitaries, musicians and archaeologists were some of many famous and everyday people I met and worked with during my residency there. I remember the time Cab Calloway spent the evening with a small group of about seven of us, playing music on the Steinway and telling us his life story, especially his early days in Baltimore. "Well, about my love-life... I really - really love creating art and making music. It's like eating. You find the time... no excuses. It has been my life-long pursuit, I'm sure I have well over four thousand works. My largest painting, and project to-date, (said to be one of the largest paintings on the East Coast) is a work-in-continuous-progress. It's at SHAKE AND BAKE SKATING AND BOWLING CENTER in Baltimore, MD. "It's called a Fun center, the perfect place to be creative. I'm right at home there. The center is my large-format canvas. And, thanks to the management, I can do practically what I know in art and marketing. I've been adding, experimenting and exploring color and design on this mural over seven years now. It's a real art jewel. A must see. And to add to this, the center is like a giant music box. It has an eighty thousand dollar music system. For me it is where my love for art, music and having fun meets dead on. (Go to our site or come see us for that family fun experience: "snbskating.com". (((To see more of my artwork - Click on "VIEW MORE PICS, just to your left, under the image of a painting I did entitle "REVEALING (The Angel of Inverted Infinity)". Carroll Greene, Jr. noted African American Art expert who helped discover Romare Bearden stated "Hurst's REVEALING - A-La the Mona Lisa". The painting Revealing also represented Maryland African American Artists in an exhibit entitled "The Black Art of America in Japan" the show open in Tokyo, Japan in 1998 and the artwork was selected by David Driskell, a close friend and art advisor/associate of Actor Bill Cosby. In my myspace picture gallery is a great shot of Danny Glover and I when we were together at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.))) Now that was an incredible tour. Boy did we have a ball. We were all over Paris during the conference. Meeting and talking to artists, diplomats, educators, actors, and musicians from all over Europe questioning their first-hand experiences and the impact of African Americans living as Expatriates. Of course, Danny Glover, true to his character, was in his activist mode. The French Press expected a Hollywood-profiling-glamour-king... but he was much too sharp, much too focused on real and serious issues concerning everyday people steering high profile media away from himself. At the Sorbonne, with a barrage journalist from New York and throught America, I had a serious discussion with France's Ambassador of Culture. I expressed my concern that France did not allocate enough funds into culture projects, That African Americans, such as Richard Wright, Josephine Baker and others great American artists were truly embraced by France. And that many made significant cultural and heroic contributions. Especially the soldiers (some also musicians), who served and laid down their life for France during the war. "I would hope that they are not forgotten". Danny Glover hinted to me at a concert-dinner that I was following him. "Right in your footsteps Sir!" I replied. -- I met and had another interesting dicussion in Paris with Richard Wright's wife, Ellen, the same week of the 1996 conference, I did promise her, her daughter and son-inlaw that I would one day return to Paris and maybe create a few monuments or two. Europe, in general, is flooded with African American music, literature, art and culture. That is so important to me as an artist when I put on my traveling shoes. Even German scholars specialize, study and publish works on "the Black Hip Hop Lingo - and Jive Talk" from our American inner city youth. "Paris Is". Art extraordinaire, live jazz jumping from early morning Caf?s that didn't sleep. Art transforming everyday business into majestic economics. (A special note: Angela Davis studied at the Sorbonne too). The Sorbonne is "THE" institution. For me it's the heart of French Culture. An incredible learning center in Paris dating back to the year 1253 - Can you believe that ?? - 1 2 5 3. Real real old - vintage genius food babe). Anyway... about my music, well I know, I was born with music in my heart with certain sounds already etched in my soul. During birth, my mother must have sung to me everyday. Through music I feel some kind of ethereal link of understanding. It's the only art form that I experience that comes ready-made with its own voice to be shaped. And really, it is a good special feeling to be able to create music (treasure "your" gift). I also studied museum design science for history and science museums at the Smithsonian Institution. What a prize school experience, studying sometimes a billion dollars worth of art for breakfast. I have worked in museums for over 38 years, in their vaults of objects and wondrous things. It’s where I DRAW most of my inspiration from. I have seen and touched some of America's rarest, oldest, precious, most unusual, sacred and unique objects. Its truly one of the greatest experiences that I have had - exploring museums from behind the scene. Once, when archeologist at Maryland Historical Trust dug the site of famed Benjamin Banneker, they contacted me to design and present their find to the public by way of an exhibition. Banneker has always been one of my favorites. I was commissioned to design Maryland's official monument to him in 1977. I also assisted with the research and design of a special exhibition that highlighted the life and photography of Addison and Robert Scurlock, founder of the Scurlock Photographic Studio in Washington, DC. Addison Scurlock took portraits of such notables as educators Booker T. Washington and Mary McLeod Bethune, composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, engineer Archie Alexander, political leader W.E.B. DuBois, former first lady Mamie Eisenhower, singer Billy Eckstine, physician Charles R. Drew, opera singer Madame Lillian Evanti and poet Sterling Brown. This highly respected photographer also documented key moments in Washington, D.C. history. I was given the honor of photographing Robert Sculock with his personal camera and had my photograph taken by him. Robert Scurlock and I became friends, and he told me he taught the former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy photography while she was training to become a Washington photojournalist, just before she married. Scrulock told me that it was through this art form, while on an assignment that she met John F. Kennedy (who later became President of USA). I also assisted, consulted and prepared exhibitions and displays for Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, helped plan and developed the first African American state museum in America, "Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis, Maryland; assisted in the planning of the Jefferson Patterson Museum; designed, installed, create artwork and acted as consultant for Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Museum. I have also installed major collections of African American history and artifacts in the Maryland's Museum of Industry and in the Baltimore Museum of Art. I designed Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper's "One Hundred Anniversary Exhibition" which opened at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The of the most sacred exhibition I've designed was for Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia. It is the headquarters of the A.M.E. Church, with a 2.5 million worldwide membership. Dr. Diane Swann-Wright, former Special Project Director at the Monticello did the research and partnered with me on this project entitled "A Freedom To Go Forth". I've consulted and worked with museum directors, developers and museum professionals in America and in France. I am presently the designer for the Frederick Douglass - Isaac Myers Maritime Park (museum) located in Fells Point - Baltimore, scheduled to open this summer 2006, curator of the Howard County Center of African American Culture, Inc. located in Columbia, Maryland, and marketing for Shake and Bake Skating and Bowling Center where I've been painting one of the largest interior wall murals. This is a must see' combination of art, music and fun. I am presently on staff in the marketing division. Murals are still being create by me as an on going project. Visit our site at www.snbskating.com ***'''''''''''I really love to stage historical objects. Its like working on mini theatre sets. A matter of fact, that's how I begun that trade. I was the first set designer at the Arena Players, in Baltimore back in the middle seventies, just after it was renovated. I am a museum curator, museum collections manager, artist, photographer, author, researcher; theatre set designer, muralist, musician, songwriter and poet. It's all one idea. Not hard at all. ***'''''''''''''*** On the subject of music - I invite you also to check out my band "Artherius Johnson". You can find scheduled concert dates at "myspace.com/artheriusjohnson" OR www.artheriusjohnson.com ((((TO HERE THE MUSIC))))...Click On our icon "ARTHERIUS JOHNSON" ((((Just below this screen)))) in the section "LA" (Laurence Hurst) Friend's Space". The band members are: Bill Buckheit on Lead Guitar, Tom Laufert on Saxophone, Guitar and Sound Effects, Dave Adams on Bass, Brooke Pahl on Clarinet, Dave Chudy on Drums and me, Front Man and Lead Vocalist. I also play Rhythm Guitar. ***''''''''''''***(The music downloads of "LA" music are for your personal listening pleasure only. LAURENCE HURST (LA) RESERVE ALL RIGHTS FOR HIS ART, LYRICS & MUSIC PUBLISHED ON THE INTERNET).***''''''''''''***' My artwork has been appraised by fine art specialist, and has been exhibited in America, Europe and in Africa. If you want more information about my artwork, give me a call (USA) 443 449-6328 or E-mail:
[email protected] - You can find background information on my artwork at Enoch Pratt Free Library - Central Branch (the Maryland Department), Baltimore Museum of Art, California African American Museum, Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis, Maryland, Frederick Douglass/Isaac Myers Maritime Museum or just type in my name and search the WEB (Laurence Hurst, Artist). ***''''''''''''***(((EXTERNAL LINKS))): (1) E-Mail;
[email protected] (2) myspace.com/artheriusjohnson (3) www.kintehaley.org - Kunta Kinte Alex Haley Foundation Board Members and Advisory Committee. Al Hopkins, Former Mayor, Annapolis, MD. Laurence Hurst, Artist. Yevola S. Peters (4) www.bizmonthly.com - The Business Monthly ... "Laurence Hurst is a Baltimore artist known for his detailed arrangements of symbolic objects and geometric design". (5) CALLALOO, (
[email protected]) the International literary and arts journal, is one of the most influential publications on the contemporary black literary scene. Charles H. Rowell, former English professor at the University of Virginia, who has also amassed the largest collection of original art by Laurence Hurst to date, founded it. This journal publishes work by some of the finest writers in the African Diaspora, from the Caribbean and the Americas to Europe. Romare Bearden and Laurence Hurst are the only two artists that artwork have appeared twice as "Cover Art" on CALLALOO magazine in its first 25 years. xroads.virginia.edu - Look for "Callaloo Cover Art" in Callaloo Gallery. "Girl Talk" by Laurence Hurst. Acrylic on paper, 10" x 13.Callaloo 20.1, Winter 1997 , and a pastel, pencil and ink drawing "New Moon" by Laurence Hurst, Summer 1990 (6) www.bsos.umd.edu - Book Project Bibliography - "African American Archeology in Annapolis, Maryland", Authored by Marian C. Creveling, Laurence Hurst, Barbara Jackson-Nash, Lynn Diekman Jones... (7) www.stamfordadvocate.com - The Advocate - Fish Out of Water Project. Check out the colorful fish that brightening up Baltimore. "Catfish" by Laurence Hurst.
