Pope Lawrence has been in Merced, California for nearly 10 years. In that time he has been instrumental in keeping the arts in the community alive. This has been a particular challenge as Merced is one of the poorest communities in the poorest county in California. As is often the case when money is scarce, one of the first items to fall to the money axe is the arts. Whether it is the theater, dance, music, or visual arts, they are often the first sacrifice made.
However, the arts are part of a community’s soul. They create an identifying stamp on a community. The diversity within a community is often displayed in its most positive way through the arts. This is how Pope Lawrence sees the contribution of art to the community. He indicates “there is a direct correlation between using local wood and ‘doing’ local art in my mind.”
Pope is grounded in the community both as a resident and an artist. He is a wood turner; someone who creates wood shapes using various awls to shape the surface while the wood is spinning. Pope occasionally uses other designs, but most commonly it is bowls. He uses local wood for nearly all of his pieces, preferring to use sustainable practices. One way he does this is by obtaining wood from people who have a downed tree, or one that is coming down for any number of reasons. Pope states “[t]here is an amazing diversity of tree species in the San Joaquin Valley; carob, camphor, myrtle, ash, maple, redwood, eucalyptus and walnut. Myrtle is my favorite wood to turn when I can get it.”
He created the mace for the University of California, Merced, using walnut from Northern California. After a thorough search of the purpose and meaning behind a mace, looking at those at other universities, and lots of searching for a high quality seal to embed in the head, he created the mace (photo on the left). Pope’s creation was first used at the first full graduating class in 2009, and was televised nationally (Michelle Obama was the guest speaker that year, and the media broadcast segments of the event). The mace is on display in the UC Merced Administration offices. Pope considers it an honor to have his creation on display, as many universities keep the mace out of sight until an event.
Pope is a member of the County Arts Council, and was president during two of the most fiscally challenging years. As he indicates, it has been a struggle with the huge economic downturn to keep enough money coming in at the Multicultural Arts Center to keep heat, air conditioning, and even more importantly the lights, on. Additionally, he is heavily involved in Playhouse Merced, the community theater, and has also been a member of their board. He is supportive of all of the Merced artists and helps to ensure they all have a place in the arts community.
We can learn not only about the beauty of wood and the beauty of art, but more importantly the importance of art in creating community, and of a community’s influence in creating art. Although Merced is struggling with difficult fiscal challenges, Pope Lawrence is one artist who plans to keep the lights on for the arts community in Merced!
