About Fulton County Public Art Program

Discovery

Artist: Reginald Laurent

The process I employ when I paint is artistic irony at best. While the end result of all my works is a bold, colorful menagerie of movement and energy, the process I utilize to get to that point is most interesting and incongruous. My paintings start with a pure white canvas painted pitch black. The black canvas is then blocked in with random white organic and geometric shapes. These white organic shapes are then filled with various colors and lots of detail that collectively marries into one cohesive work of art that consists of every color in the rainbow, except white. I often leave my paintings in this state, marveling at the beauty of all the colors, with a total absence of white. My finishing touch is when I “sew” my works together with white “thread” that snakes through the remains of any exposed black. This thread simultaneously connects and isolates every shape on the canvas. This allows each shape to both shine on its own merit, and blend in as an integral part of the total piece.

My art imitates life because it is representative of the diversity and inclusion of every culture, the backbone of what makes the world such an interesting place. The artistic irony in my art is the white foundation that “supports” all of the colors. My canvas is the only place I know where every color can exist in perfect harmony yet maintain its own individuality. It is the only place I know where I can mix, mingle and integrate beautiful pigments of colors, and every single color has its own place and space and purpose and complements, respects and adds to the totality of the work. I try to do on canvas what we can’t seem to do on earth.

Bluesy Mood by Reginald Laurent, Image 6.

Reginald Laurent
Bluesy Mood, 2017

Acrylics on canvas

40 x 30 x 2.5 in

(101.6 x 76.2 x 6.35 cm)

Fulton County Public Art Program

Atlanta, GA

Artist: Reginald Laurent