Symposium lectures: Drawing as witness, Sept. 11, 2001, by Veronica Lawlor

This is a brief summary of Veronica Lawlor's lecture, which is scheduled for Friday, July 30, at 1 p.m. and Saturday, July 31, at 1 p.m.

I will talk about my experiences creating drawings during the attack on the World Trade Center in NYC on 9/11/2001. I was downtown when the towers were hit and immediately began to draw what was going on around me. I continued to draw the events in New York City over the next few months. This was drawing as a witness to a historic event both as a public and personal recording. I will show the drawings I made as well as talk about the people I met as I was doing them. I was also asked by my friend to draw at her husband's funeral, a fireman who lost his life in the towers that day. These drawings were shown at the NYC Fire Museum and the response of the firemen who came to the opening was intense. Drawing is an emotional act and it can create a historical record that is extremely personal. I also will talk about how drawing the events after 9/11 helped me to come to terms with my own grief at the attacks on my home town.