Pamela Harris Lawton
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Pamela Harris Lawton (born January 7, 1959) printmaker and book artist, is a fifth-generation Washingtonian and educator. She was born into a family of artists, writers, actors, singers, and educators [1]. The arts were a crucial element in her upbringing and teaching is an ancestral legacy. Lawton is one of the founders of Dandelion Black Women Artists, a collective of nine mature Black women mixed media artists formed in 2021.
Biography
Lawton is the second of three children born to Frank L. Harris, a research chemist and spectroscopist for the Department of the Army and Patricia Harris Harris, a fourth-generation elementary teacher in Washington, DC public schools. She attended Howard D. Woodson High School as an art major and developed into a highly competent singer as a member of the Mixed Chorus directed by Samuel Bonds. Her art teacher, Frederick Usilton, signed her up for the Smithsonian’s Discover Graphics [2]professional printmaking program for secondary school students in the Washington, DC region. As a result of the experience, she fell in love with printmaking and received a BA in studio art and sociology from the University of Virginia in 1981. Lawton pursued graduate study in printmaking with Winston Kennedy at Howard University earning an MFA in 1991. From 1993-1999 Lawton was an artist-in-residence in the group printmaking studio at Montpelier Cultural Arts Center in Laurel, MD where she exhibited her work and taught relief printmaking courses. For 13 years (1983-1996) she worked as a human resources benefits specialist for USA TODAY newspaper [3] leaving in 1996 after taking courses toward k-12 teacher licensure for art. From 1996-1999 she taught art at Northwestern High School before deciding to pursue doctoral study in art education at Teachers College Columbia University where she studied with Graeme Sullivan. She received her EdD in the College Teaching of Art in 2004. Dr. Lawton is the Florence Gaskins Harper Endowed Chair in Art Education at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has been full-time faculty at Temple University, Tyler School of Art; University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Corcoran College of Art + Design and Virginia Commonwealth University.
Artwork
Lawton’s artwork, primarily prints, artist’s books, “Through printmaking and artist’s books Lawton teaches us how to make our human stories visual "[4]. Her figurative works take inspiration from family history, telling stories about Black life. Lawton “explores her rich African-American traditions of culture and community in a way that sheds light on individual identity through shared ideas and experiences” [4]. Her “woodcuts and linocuts are decisive works” [5]. She coined the term "artstories" [6] to describe the process of combining written and visual narratives into artworks representative of a multiplicity of generational voices on issues related to coming of age within a multicultural society.
These artstories focus on themes of everyday life and the intergenerational relationships that support and sustain Black people. She celebrates the struggles, triumphs, and strengths of marginalized and underappreciated people who, often feel and are treated like foreigners in their homeland. Lawton’s fascination with narrative forms of expression is one reason why artists’ books and printmaking are her preferred mediums of creative expression. Her process is a mix of relief printmaking, letterpress, image and text transfers, gelatin prints, collage, found objects, and decorative paper techniques. Materials often drive her approach to a given concept or idea. Her artistic influences include Elizabeth Catlett and Delita Martin whose prints center everyday Black women.
As a Black woman artist, Lawton ascribes to the tenets of Black feminism, in creating her work. Black feminist art “focuses on the Black woman subject as depicted by the Black woman artist, exploring the distinct manner in which the latter envisions and presents [the] Black woman’s realities” [7]. Black feminist art/artists depict the Black woman as: “subject rather than object; the exclusive or primary subject; active rather than passive; sensitive to the self-recorded realities of Black women; imbued with the aesthetics of the African continuum—sustaining a personal vision that embraces Afrocentric tastes in color, texture and rhythm” [7].
Lawton is best known for her ability to holistically integrate her personal art practice with her teaching and research practice [1] . Over the course of her career as an artist-educator-researcher she has exhibited in over 70 art exhibitions, given over 60 professional presentations, published 2 books, and over 30 refereed journal articles and book chapters. Her scholarship has been cited by numerous scholars across the globe. Awards and honors include Fulbright Distinguished Chair/Scotland Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh; Tate Exchange Associate Artist (theme: Movement), Tate Modern, London; Public Art Commissioner for Mecklenburg County/Charlotte, NC; J. Eugene Grigsby, Jr Award (NAEA) for distinguished contribution to the field of art education in advancing and promoting education, investigation, and celebration of cultural and ethnic heritage; the Pearl Greenberg Award for Teaching and Research in Lifelong Learning [8](NAEA); and the Betty Foster Outstanding Teacher Award (Corcoran College of Art + Design).
Memberships
National Art Education Association
Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society for Education
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Dr. Lawton founded the a peer reviewed art education journal, and has served on the editorial review board of Studies in Art Education, Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, and Art Education.
Selected Publications
Books
Artstories: Narrative Construction in Intergenerational and Transformative Learning (2008) ISBN 9783639048988
Chapters
A Love Letter to this Bridge Called My Back (2022), (pp. 147-153) ISBN 9780816544080
Contemporary Art for Young People (2021), (pp. 46-50) ISBN 9780807765746
Engaging Communities Through Civic Engagement in Art Museum Education (2020), (pp. 97-125) ISBN 9781799874294
Palgrave Handbook on Race and the Arts in Education (2018), (pp.373-390) ISBN 9783319652559
The Heart of Art Education: Contemporary Approaches to Holistic Human Development and Integration (2012), (pp. 166-179) ISBN 9781890160548
Bibliography
Jenkins, Mark (August 20, 2021). "Black women artists collaborate on innovative book project," The Washington Post
Rousseau, Claudia (August 2, 2021). "9 Artists/ 9 Months /9 Perspectives: Birth of 2020 Visions,” East City Art
McCoy, Mary (August 28, 1993). "In the Eyes of a Black Sister," The Washington Post
References
- ↑ "Pamela Lawton, MFA, EdDCTA". MICA. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
- ↑ 1. Lawton, Pamela Harris (2021). “Re-Discovering Graphics: A transformative museum-school-community partnership.” In Bryna Bobick & Carissa DiCindio (Eds.), Engaging Communities through Civic Engagement in Art Museum Education (pp. 97-125). IGI Global. ISBN. 9781799874294
- ↑ 1. Dalton, Laura & Hardie, Mary (May 1995). “Passionate Pastimes.” The Gannetteer, Gannett Co., Inc.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sullivan, Graeme (2002). Contemporary Issues in Art Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 29. ISBN 0130886882.
- ↑ McCoy, Mary (August 28, 1993). "In the Eyes of a Black Sister". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
- ↑ Sullivan, Grame (2010). Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-4129-7451-6.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tesfagiorgis, Freida High Wasikhongo (1992). The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History. New York: Routledge. p. 475. ISBN 9780064302074.
- ↑ Lawton, Pamela Harris (2021). "Pearl Greenberg Award Lecture". International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education. 4: Article 6 – via Scholars Compass.
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