"We Are All Golden People."
A conversation with Lawrence "LAW" Parker, an African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Fellow
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation is excited to welcome visual artist and music executive Lawrence "LAW" Parker III to join its fellowship program for 2025. LAW is a self-taught contemporary abstract expressionist painter, music executive, musician, and curator of culture. Originally from New Orleans, his work is an homage to his family, growing up in the Black church, and the resilience and creativity of the city itself. In this conversation, LAW offers a preview into his upcoming exhibition titled "Sunday Mornings: Pillars of Strength" and how art can showcase the power of place and historic preservation.
How did you get your start as an artist?
Art has always been a passion of mine. As a kid, my father used to change the artwork going on [in the house]. He used to actually be painting on the walls, from Looney Tunes to Mickey Mouse. My grandmother was a phenomenal painter too and she was the first person to introduce me to the Pantone color wheel.
I used to draw a lot growing up, but my career took off in the music industry. For a very long time, I was the person behind the scenes in artist management at Roc Nation. Then COVID happened, everything was shut down. My wife was like, “Hey, you might as well just get your canvas and just start painting.” And I turned our kitchen into an art studio. While I'm cooking red beans and rice, the art was on the table. When we moved over to a bigger spot, I transformed our basement into the art studio, and now I'm able to paint canvases of six to seven or eight feet tall.
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photo by: Lawrence Parker, Freeman Revival
Lawrence "LAW" Parker, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Fellow
What brought you to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund?
I did a show in Chelsea, and Tre Scott, who’s on the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund [National Advisory Council], actually purchased a piece. The crazy part is, he is from New Orleans as well, and his parents’ house is maybe like five minutes from my grandparents’ but we didn't know that. I'm super excited about being a Fellow and, after talking to Brent Leggs, the executive director of the Action Fund, about Preserving Black Churches I just feel like it only adds to the mission that I feel like I'm a part of, championing the opportunity to shepherd and maintain Black legacies.
How has your family inspired your artwork?
My grandfather was a pastor at Greater Mount Sinai Baptist Church in New Orleans as well as working a full-time job. I have all his Bibles, his robes, all these vintage photos. I look at this stuff simultaneously while I'm painting. He always said, “We're all golden people,” and that ultimately led to me saying that every person I paint is gonna be painted in gold.
I also always paint a cross, a stained [glass] cross, for all of my shows. My grandfather didn't have stained windows in the church. So one summer we actually removed the windows, took them down, and we painted our own stained windows.
My art is my homage to my grandfather, paying tribute to someone that gave me a lot of words of advice and [inspired me as] a man taking care of the family. So, paying it forward has always been the model of my art. That's also why I decided to name the art collective Freeman Revival. Freedman is our maiden last name, but then growing up, no matter what, I was forced to go to church revivals. No matter where was at, it was like, “Hey, you better get here.”
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photo by: Lawrence Parker, Freeman Revival
"Court of Two Sisters" - by Lawrence "LAW" Parker, Freeman Revival
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photo by: Lawrence Parker, Freeman Revival
"Big Momma Loved Me" - by Lawrence "LAW" Parker, Freeman Revival
What does being from New Orleans, and having your next exhibition there, mean to you?
New Orleans people, as a whole, we're an inspiration. We battle through, we know how to survive. When we think of Katrina, we think about piling on dirt and it just burying us alive, but I also look at us like, yo we got fresh dirt and it’s actually helping us sprout and become a greater people and a greater community. It's the city that raised me, I'm proud of it. No matter what I do, New Orleans is going to be represented to the fullest and I feel like the art captures that as a whole.
This would actually be my first show in New Orleans though. It's super exciting because I'm coming back as an artist and everyone knows me as a music guy. This show is called "Sunday Mornings: Pillars of Strength," and it is a dedication to every element that you would feel or see on the morning of going to church. We won’t be in church but we’re gonna bring the church to everyone. Hopefully in the future all my shows will be inside a Black church.
These churches do a lot of work locally and that's why I feel like the [preservation] message goes further when you have an advocate that's going to work on a ground level, like the Action Fund. So the show will have a lot of elements like the church program, the music, you'll have a choir, and I'm just super excited to be partnering with the Action Fund and we're going to do some great work!
Have you been involved in the historic preservation space before or is this a new transition for you?
Yeah, this would be a new thing for me, but I've always felt like I was already part of that movement because I have everything that supported my grandfather's church. I've figured out a way to go back and get it. I have a pew, I have his church robes, I have his Bible. I'm preserving something that I felt like [the Action Fund] would be trying to preserve and I just already have been collecting. So I’m excited this fellowship is happening.
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