ART & PHOTOGRAPHY Interview by Lisa Bella Bourgeois
LAURENCE GARTEL - THE VISIONARY “FATHER OF DIGITAL ART” “I saw what the future would be. How Digital Media was going to take over the world as a communicative vehicle.”
Lifetime Achievement Award ~ Harajuku section of Tokyo, Japan
Tell us about your childhood and how it has influenced your Art… realizing we are all products of our environments We are definitely all products of our environment. You asked about my childhood. I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in the Bronx across the street from Joyce Kilmer Park on the Grand Concourse. The park across the street was where I learned everything about life. Old people who used to take their “lawn chairs” from my building to sit comfortably on their own chairs vs. the hard-wooden benches they have a frontrow seat to my building. To the left of my apartment building was an all-boys Catholic School called All Hallows. In the evenings, we used to play stickball or punchball in their courtyard. The park is where I played baseball, football, hide and go seek, and ride my bike till it got dark. My mother would yell to me from the 8th-floor window to come inside for dinner. 30 | eYs Magazine, Winter 2020
The building adjacent to mine had four times time the number of apartments than my building, and when it was time to trick or treat, I came home with three bags of candy. It literally lasted a whole year till the following season. My dad, a commercial residential and commercial painter was a hard worker that got up at 5AM every day and went to work. He always said, “the roller has to hit the wall by 10 to 7.” He and his workers would quit at 3PM. By the time he got home from his assignments, it was 5PM, and by 8PM, he was in bed fast asleep. His work ethic was very much instilled into my psyche. Hard work always brought a good quality of life. He had his work car and then he worked his way up to having a Cadillac Sedan DeVille. The world was very innocent and different than it is now. On my mother’s side of the family, she had three sisters and one brother. All the sisters (my aunts) were all in competition trying to outdo each other in their own ways. One aunt was a very talented leather designer, and her three children (my cousins) were all talented in their own ways: two dancers and one sculptor. Another aunt was an OffBroadway actress. Her three children were equally talented: A photographer, a folk singer/ producer and my male cousin went into his father’s business as a jeweler who to this day designs some magnificent highend pieces that sell at Sotheby’s. Her third and eldest sister was a homemaker who raised three sons: one a policeman, the other a salesman, and the eldest son had a PhD in education. *(Very diverse). My mother’s brother had two children: two girls that I was not close with at all. I was an only child born ten years after my parents were married, so I came as a surprise to everyone. My parents exalted me like I was a prince. *(Who was I to argue?) My mom bought me a Beatle wig from the local candy store and bought me a guitar. Then she made a sign out of cray paper, and wrote, “Laurence G, the Star.” I never forgot it and actually have a photo of
this somewhere! This line took me through my entire life: “If my mother told me I was great; how could I disagree with my mother? My mother would never lie to me. I then went into the world and told everyone I was great. If they asked, “Why or who told you, I would say, “My mother told me so.” There really was no come back for this. It has been authenticated and validated my entire life. Another very important aspect of my childhood is the fact that my father was sick and had his first heart attack when I was just 9-years old. I recall having an ambulance come to the house with a stretcher, and I was so upset I didn’t know what to do. I took out my bag of crayons and just starting drawing. I couldn’t lookup. I just kept my head down to my piece of paper. I found solace in my Artwork. That was truly the start of everything. When my dad recovered, I recall my parents having a series of books on the living room coffee table. They came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They were pristine in plastic sleeves to protect the covers. Why I mention, that is because I felt that they were very important and treated them as such. Van Gogh, Matisse, Renoir fascinated me, as did Monet, Manet and Picasso. I wondered to myself if there was ever a chance I could ever be as good. Could I become a master? – I thought to myself, even at a young age, this was a very lofty goal; nearly impossible. - But it was surely worth a try. And with that conviction, I set out to be a very important Artist. I ingrained this concept in my head for all times, never to look back. How I was going to get there, I did not know. Art brought me so much comfort and joy. As an only child, Art spoke to me as if I had a brother or sister to talk to. Art had its own voice. I heard it. I could respond by making my own pictures. By ten years old, my mother enrolled me in the Pels School of Art, which was in the old Ansonia Hotel. *(Worth googling). My mother used to take me by subway on the number 4 train and get out at 72nd Street and
