An artist's search for beauty, art and identity.
It is the 1960s, the hip are experimenting. What is real, what is cinema? Michael's friend Jim Morrison shares his poems as Michael shares his painting and sculpture. He makes portraits, writes about his Felliniesque childhood in Rome meeting Errol Flynn and Laurence Olivier. He discovers antiquity, Charles Chaplin and the beauty of art and style. He wants to be famous like his friend Jim! Private encounters with John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Paul Bowles, Jacques Lipchitz and others offer Michael's imagination inspiration.
A mysterious older woman takes Michael travelling, teaching him secrets in exotic locales. Listening to the Beatles, they drift East to a peaceful Afghanistan. It is all a wonderland. A time of flow. Collecting the poetry of the moment. A unique self-portrait of an artist as a young man.
Michael Lawrence's art, described by Roy Lichtenstein as "vibrant, joyous and colourful" is well-known amongst collectors. His fine, poetic words and funny stories are destined to become equally so in this coming of age tale like no other.
"My road is long. Jim's was cut far too short. These are some of our salad days, when we sat in the front seat of unfolding realities, our Venice LA and beyond. I too am Jim's fan and friend, who deeply cherishes these memories I am sharing with you. Jim's sweetness and mischievous promptings...his gracefulness, his poetic avant garde nature, his writings." Michael Lawrence, 2016
"This book is a genuine trip, a joyous, inspiring tour of the '60s." Daniel Klein, author of Travels With Epicurus
"You have poems inside your head and you have learned to explode them with firecracker tubes of paint" Ray Bradbury
"The guys from your UCLA days sent me your way, claiming your memories and stories of Jim are among the most important" Jerry Hopkins (Co-author of the Jim Morrison biography No One Here Gets Out Alive)
"I won't try to compete with you in the word department except to say how much I enjoy reading yours." Roy Lichtenstein
"Here is a wealth of impressions! People, places and events, famous and personal, sit side by side in curious metaphors that softly draw the reader into meditation." Timothy Leary
