Grateful for a Lucky Stroke of Fate
An artist is glad her works were in York, not New Orleans, when Katrina struck.
From New york Times - Daily Record/Sunday News, Sep 13/05
By Jennifer Vogelsong
Just a few days before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast, New Orleans motorcycle and automotive artist Lory Lockwood packed up 27 of her paintings and sent them to Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts in Springettsbury Township. During the month of September, they are on display at the school, giving bike enthusiasts another way to enjoy their passion while in town for the nearby Harley-Davidson factory's annual open house and bike night.
Artist Lory Lockwood works on ‘Glory Days’ in her New Orleans studio in this 2003 photo. The piece, which will be shown for the first time this month at the Bradley Academy, shows biker Michael Stubbs on his Harley-Davidson Softail. Stubbs was killed while riding the bike on a country road, and his fiancee, who lives in the York County area, asked Lockwood to do the piece. Just days before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Lockwood packed up 27 of her paintings and sent them to the art school for a monthlong display.
Lockwood evacuated her home and studio in uptown New Orleans the day before Katrina hit, and she said she was thankful most of her paintings were safe in York. "It was just a wonderful fortuitous coincidence," she said.
The fate of two other works — one completed and the other in progress — is yet unknown. She has heard that her studio space was spared the brunt of the damage, but the building's owner told her windows blew out during the storm and the roof was torn up.
"They might be there, they might not," Lockwood said of the pieces.
She and her husband were at their vacation home in Pass Christian, Miss., the Saturday before Katrina hit when they realized the storm was heading for the Gulf coast. They returned to New Orleans and boarded up their house before joining the string of vehicles trying to escape the city Aug. 28.
At first they thought to go east, but traffic was so bad that they turned west instead and headed for a hotel in Tomball, Texas, where her husband's commodities company has an office. She took three shirts, two pairs of pants and their cat. "You think you're leaving for two or three days," she said.
Lockwood is thankful her husband thought to grab a storage unit with images of her works on it. "If I had lost that, it would have been horrible."
Tuesday and Wednesday, she spoke from her parents' home in Florida, where she was staying "for a dose of normality" while her husband remained in Texas. Her son, a junior at Tulane University in New Orleans, switched to Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., and her daughter was in Sewanee, Tenn., for her sophomore year at the University of the South.
Lockwood said she'll return to Texas until she and her husband are able to get to New Orleans and gather what they might need to live in a rental unit in Tomball for six months. She and an artist friend are looking into studio rentals in Houston so they can get back to painting.
"The thing I want to do is get back to work. You can only wallow in this for so long," she said. "I'm really looking at this as another opportunity to meet new people and be part of another arts scene."
Lockwood still plans to be in York two weeks from today for a meet-the-artist reception at Bradley. She also hopes to meet with students there and maybe set up appointments for commissioned works.
Sandra Roberts, gallery coordinator at Bradley Academy, said she has wanted to bring a motorcycle artist to York for a while.
"There are several different artists in the country who do motorcycles, and (Lockwood) is one of the best, if not the best, in my eyes," she said.
Lockwood paints in oil on canvas in a traditional style and is known for the photographic quality, exquisite detail and bright color of her finished pieces.
She started out doing still lifes in the late 1980s but soon gravitated toward automobiles and motorcycles because of her fascination with their reflective surfaces. "They are images of desire, passion and dreams," she said. "And I just enjoyed meeting the bikers and car enthusiasts so much."
Hers is an art that balances between two worlds, and that's just fine with her.
"Most other (motorcycle artists) came into the field from a love of vehicle, and I'm coming at it from other way," she said. "The bikers are always amazed, and my artist friends like it too, so I'm in a funny little place."
And until she is able to return to New Orleans, she's also an artist without a place to call home.
Reach Jennifer Vogelsong at 771-2034 or jvogelsong@ydr.com.
IF YOU GO
New Orleans artist Lory Lockwood's passion for chrome will be on display through Sept. 28 in the community gallery at Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts in Springettsbury Township.
Twenty-seven works with a total value of more than $72,000 make up "Mechanical Paradise," an exhibit of realistic paintings of motorcycles — especially Harley-Davidsons. The show coincides with the annual Harley-Davidson open house Sept. 22-24 and York City's bike night Sept. 23.
Lockwood will be at the school from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Sept. 22 for a meet-the-artist reception.
Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Admission is free. For details, call 755-2300. For a glimpse of her work, visit www.lorylockwood.com.
