emery lambus, 2016 

Henry Taylor: Emery Lambus was someone I met about fifteen years ago. And he was selling fake watches—or watches that he said were Rolexes or this and that. And they were obviously not. I asked him what else did he do? And he told me he could draw, or he did make drawings. And I don't know if I saw his sketchbook then, but I did invite him up to my house because he also had told me he learned upholstery in a prison. And I had a relative who had been to that same prison alone and learned upholstery. So, he came up and upholstered something in like thirty minutes perfectly. And we've been friends ever since. And he does have artistic ability. I have given him a show at my gallery in Chinatown, and as well as hosted a poetry reading for him and had those poems printed.

Narrator: Taylor has made a number of paintings of Lambus. This one appears multi-layered. 

Henry Taylor: I probably started another painting and I just put him on top of it because it looks like it might be a woman’s legs on the ground, so you know what I mean? It just sort of collided. Which could be sort of considered an experimental start you know what I mean, trying to start things differently. And sometimes you might, in the beginning, if you're drawing portraits, you're measuring, you know sometimes it's like, you know something by heart or you cook something and you don't always look at the cookbook. You just go for it.