Laurence Channing, Graphic Artist 2000 CLEVELAND ARTS PRIZE FOR VISUAL ARTS
Deceptively photographic in appearance, Channing’s exquisite charcoal drawings are in fact guided by an acutely developed pictorial intelligence. His artistic process begins with long walks with a 35mm camera that documents in color selected views of unremarkable locales. Back in the studio, he translates this rich photographic detail into black and white compositions. Employing a technique that exploits the sensual qualities of his medium, he grinds his charcoal in a mortar and applies it with various homemade tools made from sticks and rags. Channing has noted that edges are central to his work and an astute viewer can observe that the remarkable range of muted softness and formal crispness in his drawings is achieved through the mastery of his edges.
He persevered quietly for many years as an abstract painter. In the mid-1980s, faced with a crisis in artistic direction, he sought comfort in the immediacy of drawing and familiarity of his visual world. Something clicked and he segued from an abstract realm to a world of verisimilitude that defines his current enterprise. Channing is the master of a commanding and powerful emptiness. His compositions are visual moments arrested in mid-step and transformed into seductive, meditative worlds. Viewers are compelled to enter these uninhabited places where narrative is suggested but never provided. Like Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Channing transforms a moment into an extended reverie that transcends time and place. His work lovingly acknowledges our humanity by making something timeless out of the fleeting present we all inhabit. —Jill Snyder ![]() ![]() |
Cleveland Arts Prize
P.O. Box 21126 • Cleveland, OH 44121 • 440-523-9889 • info@clevelandartsprize.org