Margie Lawrence, well know for her portraits of baseball legends, especially the Chicago Cubs, will present her paintings and drawings of star players of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, including the Rockford Peaches in a Kortman Gallery exhibition opening Friday, July 17th. Her solo exhibition, “Amazons of the Diamond” opens as a kick-off event for the Women’s Baseball World Cup to be held in Rockford, July 22-24 at Rivets Stadium. Lawrence will also feature some of her paintings of classic Cub players that she is so well known for.
“Having grown up blocks from the friendly confines of Wrigley Field, I had no choice but to fall in love with the Cubs,” says Lawrence.
“The organ music and cheers of the crowd would drift through the open windows of my school, which sat a mere block from the bleacher entrance. And like many of my loves, the Cubs have disappointed me, but…2016 was my epiphany and the religious experience fueled my artistic nature.”
Lawrence, a graduate of the Chicago Art Institute, has built a successful art career creating paintings of baseball legends.
“I do prefer the old timers, as they all seem to have been such characters—Three Finger Brown, Cool Papa Bell, and Leo the Lip. When my buddy Ronny Santo passed away, I did the ugly cry in front of Wrigley,” said Lawrence. To welcome the Women’s Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) to Rockford, Margie Lawrence’s Kortman Gallery show presents mostly paintings and drawings of players from the All-American Girls Baseball league, made internationally famous with the film “A League of the their Own” which told the story through the Rockford Peaches, four-time league champions. Portraits include Doris Sams, Maybelle Blair, Shirley Burkovich, Bonnie Baker, and more. “Amazon’s of the Diamond,” paintings and drawings by Margie Lawrence opens Friday, July 17th, from 5:30 to 9pm in the Kortman Gallery, upstairs at J.R. Kortman Center for Design, 107 North Main Street, Downtown Rockford. J.R. Kortman and the Kortman Gallery are open Tuesday through Friday, 11am to 6pm and Saturdays, 11am to 5pm. The opening event and gallery are free and open to the public. For more information visit www.jrkortman.com or phone 815-968-0123.