Lawton Hall: Entropy at its Finest

Lawton Hall's story was almost as inspiring as his work -- the way he sort of fell into a rhythm of doing work, both professionally and in his spare time, and the way he described leaving school and going into the non-academic world.

Lawton's trajectory post-college was interesting to me because of how things just sort of came together for him; how often times it seems like one thing led to an unexpected other, like in the case of the slides and the Wilwaukee gallery space. The way Lawton described Lawrence made it sound like a vehicle for the his understanding of how to work and a source for a network of people -- but the art came from a larger series of events.

The collaboration at the Wormfarm institute, resulting in the video above featuring Holy Sheboygan, as well as several other songs, is a perfect example of how the chaotic forces that brought Lawton and the band together resulted in something beautiful; something that doesn't seem like it could have happened by a chance meeting. However, this is ultimately how all are is created -- at least, how all collaborative art is created. Music might be a better example of this phenomenon than other art forms, since playing in a band is so collaborative by nature, but the artistic process always involves other people, whether they are collaborators or guiding forces, and it seems like a miracle every time these people are brought together.

It never lasts, of course -- not the people, not the collaboration, not even the product. But the fact that it happened at all is a testament to entropy.