Lawrence (or Lawren) Oliver III (b. 1981) has always had strange dreams. Heroic and ecstatic flying dreams, dreams about animated talking rivers of sewage, nightmares about bottomless pits. Songs, sounds and voices from the real world trickle in through the ear canal and influence Lawren’s dream worlds, where they interact with cameo appearances by Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and the animated and human characters from Pokemon, reminding the dreamer not to use curse words on a children’s tv program. Dreams are different from “mind movies,” which they’ve been making with their imagination since childhood, which Lawren spent in the contrasting environments of Hope, Arkansas and Los Angeles, before moving to Portland in 2003. “I didn’t like California at all,” they say, still longing for the intense rush of summer thunderstorms and the magnificence of the tall weeds of Arkansas.

Oliver is a dedicated artist who has been honing their craft for decades. They assemble sculptures with resourceful household materials: “I use drywall shims, papier mache, and papier mache clay, wood glue, masking tape, and poster board for my art practices. I make functional sculptures sometimes, and I think it’s amazing that you can make art to do art.” Sometimes the creation of the medium is the joy of creation, which Lawren finds in the process of mixing up a batch of “cold porcelain” from corn starch, white glue, baby oil, and lemon juice. When the correct ingredients converge with visionary inspiration, Lawren has been known to construct seven-foot tall flowering trees from scratch, working through the night to cut out each pink flower petal. You would almost think Lawren Oliver’s trees could photosynthesize. They have made several elaborate chandeliers using bundles of coat hanger wire, paper and glue, paperclip chains, and wheel-thrown ceramic candleholders, which have hung from the ceilings of institutions from the Portland Art Museum to the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan Wisconsin.

Learn more about Lawren via their personal website.