Paul Laffoley: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
Jamankowitz (talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 7: | Line 7: | ||
By Laffoley's account, he spoke his first word ("Constantinople") at the age of six months, and then lapsed into 4 years of silence. He attended the progressive Mary Lee Burbank School in Belmont, where his draftsman's talent was ridiculed by his teachers. After attending Boston public schools for a short time, Laffoley matriculated at [[Brown University]], graduating in [[1962]] with honors in Classics, Philosophy, and Art History. Laffoley has written that, in his senior year at Brown, he was given eight electric-shock treatments. |
By Laffoley's account, he spoke his first word ("Constantinople") at the age of six months, and then lapsed into 4 years of silence. He attended the progressive Mary Lee Burbank School in Belmont, where his draftsman's talent was ridiculed by his teachers. After attending Boston public schools for a short time, Laffoley matriculated at [[Brown University]], graduating in [[1962]] with honors in Classics, Philosophy, and Art History. Laffoley has written that, in his senior year at Brown, he was given eight electric-shock treatments. |
||
In [[1963]], he attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and apprenticed with the sculptor [[Mirko Basaldella]] before being dismissed. Thereafter, he moved to New York to apprentice with the visionary architect [[Friedrich Kiesler]]. He was also hired for the design team of the World Trade Center, but was soon after fired by the chief architect, [[Mihoru Yamasaki]], for his unconventional ideas. In [[1964]], Laffoley moved into an eighteen- by thirty-foot utility room to found the Boston Visionary Cell (website: http://www.cybercom.net/~gsullivan/bvc/ |
In [[1963]], he attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and apprenticed with the sculptor [[Mirko Basaldella]] before being dismissed. Thereafter, he moved to New York to apprentice with the visionary architect [[Friedrich Kiesler]]. He was also hired for the design team of the World Trade Center, but was soon after fired by the chief architect, [[Mihoru Yamasaki]], for his unconventional ideas. In [[1964]], Laffoley moved into an eighteen- by thirty-foot utility room to found the Boston Visionary Cell (website: http://www.cybercom.net/~gsullivan/bvc/), where he has produced the large majority of his work. |
||
During a routine CAT scan of his head in 1992, a miniature metallic implant, 3/8" long, was discovered in the occipital lobe of his brain, near the pineal gland. Local M.U.F.O.N. ([[Mutual UFO Network]]) investigators declared it to be "an alien nanotechnological laboratory." Laffoley has come to believe that the "implant" is extraterrestrial in origin and is the main motivation behind his ideas and theories. |
During a routine CAT scan of his head in 1992, a miniature metallic implant, 3/8" long, was discovered in the occipital lobe of his brain, near the pineal gland. Local M.U.F.O.N. ([[Mutual UFO Network]]) investigators declared it to be "an alien nanotechnological laboratory." Laffoley has come to believe that the "implant" is extraterrestrial in origin and is the main motivation behind his ideas and theories. |
||
| Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
[[Image:LafGeo.jpg|frame|[[The Orgone Motor]] (1990)]] |
[[Image:LafGeo.jpg|frame|[[The Orgone Motor]] (1990)]] |
||
== Works == |
== Works == |
||
Revision as of 18:58, 16 September 2005
Paul Laffoley (b. August 14, 1940) is an American artist and architect.
Biography
Laffoley was born in Belmont, Massachusetts to an Irish Catholic family. His father, Paul Laffoley, Sr., the president of the Cambridge Trust Company, was also a lawyer and taught classes at the Harvard University Business School. Early in life, Laffoley, Sr. also did on-stage performances as a medium.
By Laffoley's account, he spoke his first word ("Constantinople") at the age of six months, and then lapsed into 4 years of silence. He attended the progressive Mary Lee Burbank School in Belmont, where his draftsman's talent was ridiculed by his teachers. After attending Boston public schools for a short time, Laffoley matriculated at Brown University, graduating in 1962 with honors in Classics, Philosophy, and Art History. Laffoley has written that, in his senior year at Brown, he was given eight electric-shock treatments.
In 1963, he attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and apprenticed with the sculptor Mirko Basaldella before being dismissed. Thereafter, he moved to New York to apprentice with the visionary architect Friedrich Kiesler. He was also hired for the design team of the World Trade Center, but was soon after fired by the chief architect, Mihoru Yamasaki, for his unconventional ideas. In 1964, Laffoley moved into an eighteen- by thirty-foot utility room to found the Boston Visionary Cell (website: http://www.cybercom.net/~gsullivan/bvc/), where he has produced the large majority of his work.
During a routine CAT scan of his head in 1992, a miniature metallic implant, 3/8" long, was discovered in the occipital lobe of his brain, near the pineal gland. Local M.U.F.O.N. (Mutual UFO Network) investigators declared it to be "an alien nanotechnological laboratory." Laffoley has come to believe that the "implant" is extraterrestrial in origin and is the main motivation behind his ideas and theories.
In the summer of 2001, Laffoley fell from a 20-foot ladder while climbing up to his loft and broke both legs. His right leg subsequently became infected and was amputated below the knee.
After the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, Laffoley was one of a number of architects who, in 2002, submitted designs for competition to plan the Freedom Tower. Laffoley took his inspiration from the work of Basque architect Antoni Gaudi.
As of 2004, Laffoley claims to have executed over 800 works.
Works
Laffoley's work over the last forty years is a dizzying mix of precise architectural-quality painting and ideas from ancient times to the age of quantum physics. Laffoley has called his work "a mix of the pure rational (Apollonian) and the pure emotional (Dionysian)."
Sources
http://www.fusionanomaly.net[1]
http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/mephiticmodels.html[2]
http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/paulsleg.html[3]
Bibliography
Laffoley, P. (1989). Paul Laffoley: The Phenomenology of Revelation. Boston: Kent Fine Art.
Laffoley, P. (1999). Architectonic Thought Forms: a Survey of the Art of Paul Laffoley 1967-1999. Austin, TX: Austin Museum of Fine Art.