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Paul Laffoley
Paul Laffoley (August 14, 1935 – November 16, 2015) was an American visionary artist and architect based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Laffoley was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to an Irish Catholic family on August 14, 1935.[citation needed]
Laffoley wrote that his first spoken word was "Constantinople" at the age of six months, and that he did not speak again until he was four years old. As a child, he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. He attended the Mary Lee Burbank School in Belmont, which utilized Waldorf education. As a draftsman, he was ridiculed by his abstract expressionist teachers. After studies at the Mary Lee Burbank, Laffoley completed undergraduate studies at Brown University and graduated in 1961 with honors in classics, philosophy, and art history. According to his "Phenomenology of Revelation," while at Brown in 1961, Laffoley was given eight electroshock treatments after "about a year of weekly sessions with a psychiatrist, who had treated [him] for a mild state of catatonia."
From an early age, Laffoley demonstrated an interest in UFOs, having seen the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still 873 times. He explained that his interest in the film derived partly from a fascination with the architecture of the spaceship. As a child, he wanted to become an architect so that he could design flying saucers, although he did not become a registered architect until age 50.[citation needed]
Following his studies in architecture at Brown University and Harvard, he went to New York in 1963, to work with the artist and architect Frederick Kiesler, and was also hired to watch late-night TV for Andy Warhol in exchange for housing.
Laffoley painted in the basement of his family home in Belmont on the weekends, where he completed his first fully mature vision: "The Kali-Yuga: The End of the Universe at 424826 A.D". From this point forward, Laffoley began to formulate his trans-disciplinary approach, combining philosophy, science, architecture and spirituality into the practice of painting. Laffoley first started to work in a format related to Eastern mandalas, partially inspired by the patterns he watched for Warhol on late-night television. This quickly developed into five general subcategories of paintings: operating systems, psychotronic devices, meta-energy, time travel, and lucid dreaming. Conceived as "structured singularities", Laffoley did not work in series but approached each project as a unique schematic. Each 73 ½ x 73 ½ inch canvas would take up to three years to paint and code. By the late 1980s, Laffoley began to shift from the spiritual and the intellectual to viewing his work as an interactive, physically engaging psychotronic device.[citation needed]
In 2001, Laffoley was seriously injured in a fall in his studio. Complications from diabetes led to the amputation of his right leg below the knee. At Laffoley's request, Stan Winston made him a custom prosthetic leg that resembled a lion's paw, symbolizing Laffoley's astrological sign, Leo.
Following the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in the September 11 attacks, Laffoley was among several architects who submitted designs in 2002 for the competition to plan the Freedom Tower. Laffoley's design was inspired by the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and was conceived as a hotel in the style of Gaudí's Sagrada Família church in Barcelona.
Paul Laffoley
Paul Laffoley (August 14, 1935 – November 16, 2015) was an American visionary artist and architect based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Laffoley was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to an Irish Catholic family on August 14, 1935.[citation needed]
Laffoley wrote that his first spoken word was "Constantinople" at the age of six months, and that he did not speak again until he was four years old. As a child, he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. He attended the Mary Lee Burbank School in Belmont, which utilized Waldorf education. As a draftsman, he was ridiculed by his abstract expressionist teachers. After studies at the Mary Lee Burbank, Laffoley completed undergraduate studies at Brown University and graduated in 1961 with honors in classics, philosophy, and art history. According to his "Phenomenology of Revelation," while at Brown in 1961, Laffoley was given eight electroshock treatments after "about a year of weekly sessions with a psychiatrist, who had treated [him] for a mild state of catatonia."
From an early age, Laffoley demonstrated an interest in UFOs, having seen the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still 873 times. He explained that his interest in the film derived partly from a fascination with the architecture of the spaceship. As a child, he wanted to become an architect so that he could design flying saucers, although he did not become a registered architect until age 50.[citation needed]
Following his studies in architecture at Brown University and Harvard, he went to New York in 1963, to work with the artist and architect Frederick Kiesler, and was also hired to watch late-night TV for Andy Warhol in exchange for housing.
Laffoley painted in the basement of his family home in Belmont on the weekends, where he completed his first fully mature vision: "The Kali-Yuga: The End of the Universe at 424826 A.D". From this point forward, Laffoley began to formulate his trans-disciplinary approach, combining philosophy, science, architecture and spirituality into the practice of painting. Laffoley first started to work in a format related to Eastern mandalas, partially inspired by the patterns he watched for Warhol on late-night television. This quickly developed into five general subcategories of paintings: operating systems, psychotronic devices, meta-energy, time travel, and lucid dreaming. Conceived as "structured singularities", Laffoley did not work in series but approached each project as a unique schematic. Each 73 ½ x 73 ½ inch canvas would take up to three years to paint and code. By the late 1980s, Laffoley began to shift from the spiritual and the intellectual to viewing his work as an interactive, physically engaging psychotronic device.[citation needed]
In 2001, Laffoley was seriously injured in a fall in his studio. Complications from diabetes led to the amputation of his right leg below the knee. At Laffoley's request, Stan Winston made him a custom prosthetic leg that resembled a lion's paw, symbolizing Laffoley's astrological sign, Leo.
Following the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in the September 11 attacks, Laffoley was among several architects who submitted designs in 2002 for the competition to plan the Freedom Tower. Laffoley's design was inspired by the work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and was conceived as a hotel in the style of Gaudí's Sagrada Família church in Barcelona.
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