Josie Lawrence

My family moved to South Boston, Massachusetts when I was nine years old.  I began art lessons with the Minneapolis, Minnesota Correspondence School of Art when I was eleven years old.  At the time I was the youngest student at the school and I never completed the courses to my mother’s dismay.

Graduated from South Boston High School with a minor in art, and worked as a secretary at the John Hancock Insurance Company.  Married John Lawrence and became the proud parents of three daughters.  I knew oil painting was the medium for me when I took an oil painting class at a local high school nights.  It challenged me then and continues to challenge me today.

As a pioneer at the Massachusetts College of Art’s newly implemented part-time continuing education degree program, I took art courses at night and worked days at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Received my BFA as a painting major and used summer vacation time in pursuit of graduate studies in England, Italy, China, Greece and Spain, along with travels to France Ireland, Egypt and India. 

After receiving a BFA with a major in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art, the next 10 years of summer vacations from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum were in pursuit of graduate studies in different parts of the world.  During one summer, Tom Carr, my professor at the Escola d’Arts Plastique I Disseny in Barcelona, Spain (Barcelona Oldest Art Academy) said to me, “I can see in your paintings that you like quiet and stillness.”  Professor Carr’s statement continues to give me pause to reflect.  As one of eight children from a family whose parents were born in Italy, I remember the many times I retreated to the bedroom I shared with two sisters to draw in solitude.  In fact, the wife of a fellow artist recently commented, “Your art is so peaceful.”