About Lawrence Hayward
Lawrence Hayward was born in the small town of Midland Ontario, November 10 1930. One of seven sons who spent his quiet summers in the tourist town as it is known today.
All of this changed during the Second World War when changes were the regulararity of each and every family. Around the world.
After four years of Art at Central Technical School in Toronto, Lawrence pursued his career as a dancer which led him into Ballet, Modern and oriental concerts for T.V. and small tours. The two scholarships with the choreographer for My Fair Lady and later for Camelot in 1960 Hanya Holme took him out of Canada into the U.S.A.
Even that was not enough as his education took off in returning to El Camino College in Torrence California. Here his love of art gathered more incentive with Sculpting and Art History. It was then the idea of doing something Canadian took seed.
All this history about Europe and Italy but nothing about Canadians dawned for the first time. His friends Misses Loring and Wyle being the strongest influences. The spirit caught fire when he returned to Canada to do some ground work on a duo biography on these two unknowns.
Dance therapy got replaced by dancing at the tender age of 29 when he lived and worked with the now famous Joseph Pilates in his New York studios.
Even this kind of therapy was not enough and Massage and Shiatsu of the Japan method was added to working with physiotherapists in New York and Toronto.
In 1963 the start of Canadian Sculptors Biographed began with the photographs and biographical information supplied by the two artists who lived across the street from Hayward on Glenrose Avenue.
The untimely deaths of both these people caused deep concern about the future of the publication for all efforts to get published got swept under the table. The visit to Montreal and a talk with J. Russell Harper, historian and writer served as a director to greater things then just two Canadians to write about.
And so the story goes on for many years to what is now The Hayward Collection that consists of thousands of records of works and biography that consist the life and works of our pioneer Sculptors.
Not satisfied with all this and the disappointment of not getting a publisher he took on the five year task of recording marble tombstones in Eastern Ontario. Yes, 15,000 of them in 700 cemeteries. It was not just photograph but clean 9,000 of them just to find the designs and names of the carvers or companies. One hundred and sixty one of them in total at a cost of $16.000.00 the book Gravette is filled (200 pages) with photos and stories of his findings. This got published in the year 2000.
Now 2003 at age 72 comes the publication of his trained sculptors who made our busts, statues and memorials throughout Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. Very few in the western part of Canada.
