Inspired by global travel, alumnus Lavar Munroe creates dreamlike versions of our world.
“Make ugly paintings.” That was the advice that Lavar Munroe, MFA ’13, received from his professors in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
“My graduate experience was simultaneously challenging and fulfilling,” he says, as he recalls his days as a graduate student and burgeoning artist.
Munroe, who originally trained at the Savannah College of Art and Design, arrived at Sam Fox to pursue graduate work after a few years spent as a freelance illustrator. “At that point, I probably hadn’t painted for two or three years because I was doing mostly digital work,” he says. “It’s like I had to relearn how to paint.”
At heart, the advice was to allow imperfection into his work. “I would take a knife, stab the canvases and cut out the areas that I didn’t like,” he says. He would then sew the canvases back together, often incorporating objects like old shoes or hair pieces found in the streets of St. Louis. Today, his work includes mixed-media painting, cardboard sculpture and drawings, all of which he says evoke an “otherworldly, dreamy, theatrical space.”
