Lawless was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Buffalo, New York. His interest in art was fostered by the presence of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery nearby, and a by sculptor Larry Griffis, who was a friend of the family.

He attended Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey from 1968 to 1970 and from 1972 to 1974 when he graduated with a BFA degree. At Rutgers College Lawless studied with Bob Cook, Livingston College and Mel Edwards at Rutgers.

He enrolled at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana and studied with Kostantin Milonadis, a Distinguished Professor and Artist-in-Residence at the university. Lawless committed himself to working with steel and the idea of combining it with as many different materials as possible (in particular at that time, stained glass).

From 1980 to 1982 Lawless attended SUNY at Buffalo studying with Duayne Hatchett and George Smith. In June 1982 he received his Master of Fine Arts|MFA]] degree from SUNYAB. Unrelated to the pursuit of his graduate degree Lawless built and installed Cock-a-doodle-doo at the State University College of Buffalo (Buffalo State College) directly across the street from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery with a dedication in May 1982.

In 1994 Lawless married Svetlana Schreiber, an immigration attorney, in Cleveland, Ohio and originally of Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania. He has two stepsons who reside in New York City.

The Politician: A Toy
Green Lightning, 1984
Didy Wah Didy

Theoretically, this, is one of the artists simplest pieces, containing no sexual imagery, and should not have engendered nearly the amount of controversy that it has. As part of its annual sculpture invitational at Heritage Village in Columbus, Ohio Lawless was asked to join 31 other artists in mostly large-scale installations that were requested to be site specific. Lawless chose a site close to Interstate-70 where he erected Didy Wah Didy named for the mythical railroad bound for hell (Black Southern folklore.) With extremely simple imagery and few words the piece is a timed neon sequence that shows a mushroom cloud forming (animated) over a boys head. With the words "Atomic Playground Ahead" and "Kids Ride the Big One!" it is a piercing send-up of typical American road side attractions.

Amy Sparks, 1989
Ms. Sparks is a writer and poet, living in Cleveland, Ohio.

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Broasted Babies Brew-ha-ha

"...By a knight of ghosts and shadows I summoned am to tourney Ten leagues beyond The wide world's end-- Methinks it is no journey..."
Tom O'Bedlam


Broasted Babies is an installation dealing with the subject of genocide over the last 2000 years.