In this wood engraving entitled Taipei, American artist Lawrence Keaty (b. 1986) offers us a vision of the city he was born in and where he lived when he made this print in 2020. The print is made from six separate blocks and together measure 65cm x 35cm (25.5" x 14"). The print was selected by my Wisconsin colleagues Tracy Honn and Jim Moran for inclusion in the Fourth Triennial Exhibition 2020-2022 of the American American wood engravers society, the Wood Engravers’ Network (WEN). This image is from the catalog for that travelling show.
Lawrence Keaty received a BA from Kenyon College with a major in Studio Art and he earned his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010. He taught English in Taiwan and South Korea from 2011 to 2019 and then worked as a writer/editor for Global Village Organization in Taipei for a year before returning to the U.S. (New Mexico) where he currently works as a UX/UI designer as well as a professional artist.
View other posts with engravings from the WEN Fourth Triennial Exhibition.
View more engravings by members of the Wood Engraver’s Network.
View more posts with wood engravings!
– MAX, Head, Special Collections and juror for the WEN Fifth Triennial Exhibition.
I’ve always been inspired by photographers like Liam Wong, Noealz, and Steve Roe who became famous for doing cyberpunk and street photography in Japan and South Korea. I wanted to see if I could capture Taiwan in the same way...
However unlike them I’ve never been able to gain much of a following for my work —let alone sell any prints or make money. I don’t know if it’s because my work just simply isn’t that good, or I haven’t made the right connections with the right people... or a bit of both.
I know I have a terrible attitude and am horrible at making/maintaining friendships. In fact many people have accused me of being either a sociopath or on the spectrum. Maybe I’m both? I don’t know...
But the way I see it is that I’d just rather not deal with people. Why should the beauty and value of my work have to be tied to and artificially inflated by whatever relationship or connection I’ve made? Why do I have to play the stupid game of others when all I want to do is shoot, edit, repeat?
In response people often tell me to, “Just shoot for fun, or quit crying and figure out a way to turn your photograpahy into a successful business.”
Perhaps they’re right. Or perhaps not. Maybe if I just fully embrace who I am instead of trying to compromise to meet the expectations of society then things will work out.
Or maybe I’ll be forced to face the harsh reality that my failure to conform, adapt, and improve will result in me being a complete failure who must now fade into the great abyss and join the mass graveyard of failed artists no one ever heard of.
I guess the results of this ad will be a good indicator of what’s to come...