{"id":98716,"date":"2019-06-12T11:03:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T15:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//?p=98716"},"modified":"2019-06-24T10:55:23","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T14:55:23","slug":"ucf-grads-pulse-inspired-art-earns-top-honors-at-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//ucf-grads-pulse-inspired-art-earns-top-honors-at-competition/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//","title":{"rendered":"麻豆原创 Grad’s Pulse-inspired Art Earns Top Honors at Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, 麻豆原创 art grad Forrest Lawson /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201918 bested more than 400 artists for top honors and a $50,000 award at a regional competition for his piece 6/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//12/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//2016, a sculpture he created to memorialize the Pulse tragedy, honor its victims and communicate the emotions and responses the shooting awakened across communities./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

Born and raised in Punta Gorda, a small town on the west coast of Florida in between Naples and Sarasota, Lawson explored his creativity growing up, but hadn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u2019t really thought of it as a future career path./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cI was always drawing very macabre things, because I was a gay teen in the closet,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d Lawson says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cBut I never really explored it until I got to college because back then it was like I had to become a dentist or a doctor./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

Lawson, who met his now-husband during their sophomore year of high school, was bullied growing up for being gay long before he even came out. Because of this, he and his husband dated secretly for a few years until officially making their relationship public following graduation./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cIt was more of a survival thing; I was just denying it because I didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u2019t want to have to confront other people or myself,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d Lawson says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

After high school graduation, Lawson attended Florida Gulf Coast University before transferring to Valencia College to major in architecture. But once he realized he was having more fun building actual models, he took advantage of the DirectConnect to 麻豆原创 program and switched his major to art by the time he arrived at 麻豆原创 in 2014./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cComing to 麻豆原创 was a great experience for my work and growth,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d Lawson says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cI just never really felt the sense of community that I feel in Orlando anywhere else. For me, 麻豆原创 was the right choice./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

The decision Lawson made to switch from architecture to art was in large part due to the joy he found in the creation of tangible objects./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cI think I have control issues, even still, because so much of my life and coming out felt out of control,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d Lawson says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cSo I think for me, having that control over tangible clay and making sculptures, it makes me feel a little more stable./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

During his years at 麻豆原创, Lawson was able to implement a community aspect to his work by doing more outreach-driven projects, taking his initial vision and allowing others to participate in its execution./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

Shortly after the Pulse tragedy in Orlando on June 12, 2016, Lawson and several of his friends came across an article that said a long-standing FDA ban had been lifted. The ban in question specifies, “Men who have had sex with other men (MSM), at any time since 1977 (the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the United States) are currently deferred as blood donors.” When Lawson showed up to donate, however, it became clear that the article was false /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u2014 the ban was still very much in place./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cWe wanted to help. We wanted to donate blood and help our brothers and sisters. But we couldn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u2019t,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d he says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

Most of Lawson/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u2019s work is a response to his own anger. And being turned away from donating blood and doing all he could to help the victims of Pulse made him angry. So he got to work creating the sculpture Better Blood./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cArtists have a task in society to paint the revolution in a way that people can connect with./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u2014 Forrest Lawson ’18/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cArtists have a task in society to paint the revolution in a way that people can connect with,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d Lawson says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201cI want to use the platform that I have in whatever capacity that I have to communicate that ignorance and hatred are not acceptable./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

While creating Better Blood was a helpful experience for Lawson to express his frustration, he was still eager to create something that would memorialize the Pulse tragedy and honor the victims through his art./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n

This motivation would eventually become 6/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//12/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716//2016, which involves 49 cubes with the names of the victims hand-stamped and their dates of birth. The cubes also contain the two commonalities between each of the 49 victims /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/u2014 their death date and the wristband they were wearing the night of the shooting. Lawson posted a nationwide call for people to submit their response to the tragedy and each of the narratives selected are juxtaposed to a name and wristband./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/98716/n