Fells Point in Baltimore, Maryland — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
Loring Cornish / How Great Thou Art
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), June 7, 2018
[Left plaque:]
Baltimore artist Loring Cornish, known for his colorful mosaics and personality, moving to California
Artist Loring Cornish, whose glass and found-object mosaics have beautified homes on Eutaw Street, a former police outpost near Penn Station and his studio in Fells Point, is leaving Baltimore for Los Angeles, where he hopes to realize his dream of an acting career.
"I just didn't want to waste any more time, not pursuing what I really wanted to do," Cornish said Wednesday, back in Baltimore for a brief visit before returning to L.A. and the space he's renting in the city's Silver Lake neighborhood. "I think I've reached the pinnacle I could reach in Fells Point."
Besides acting, Cornish says he hopes to write his memoirs once he's settled on the West Coast.
It would be quite the book.
A West Baltimore native who grew up, he says, with Druid Hill Park as his backyard, Cornish has become known around town for his colorful creations. Self-taught as an artist, he's had exhibitions at the John Hopkins University's Evergreen House, Morgan State University, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture and the American Visionary Art Museum.
One of his best-known works can still be seen at the corner of Charles and Lanvale streets, just down from the Charles Theatre. Two years ago, in the months following the death of Freddie Gray, he encased an old police substation there in pieces of colored glass, emblazoning it with messages of hope and repeated depictions of the word "please."
He called the project "Change for the Better" and said it was meant to reflect a city in shambles. "I wanted it to be hopeful and uplifting about the situation, but still strong about the message that police brutality is wrong," Cornish told Baltimore Sun reporter Andrea K. McDaniels. In two earlier works, on a pair of West Baltimore houses, Corish had struck an angrier tone; a sign on one likened police brutality to legal lynching and featured black dolls hanging from trees.
His move to California — he plans to leave for good right after Christmas, Cornish says — will mark the second time he's relocated west. He lived in L.A. for about 10 years in the 1990s, creating art in the Silver Lake house he was renting and working as a shoe repairman and occasional actor (and living as Van Freeman, the name he received after being adopted by his stepfather; Loring Cornish, he says, is his birth name).
Cornish returned to Baltimore in 2001. But thing is, he apparently didn't tell everyone (including his landlord) that he was heading east, and the house full of art he left
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), January 20, 2018
"It really makes a guy feel good," Cornish says, referring to the interest in his artwork, on both coasts. But he's always wanted to become a full-time actor, he says, and realizing that dream will be realized a lot easier in Los Angeles than in Baltimore.
"I have enough money to just go out there and focus on my acting and my writing," he says. "I would be doing the same thing that I would be doing here in Baltimore."
He's been both surprised and heartened, Cornish says, by the response since word got out here in Baltimore that he was L.A.-bound. People stopped by his Thames Street gallery, he says, to say how much they've liked his work and wish him well.
"I've never realized the impact my work had on the community at large, or the community right here in town — people that you didn't think even noticed you," he says. "I have a lot of fans."
[Right plaque:]
My name is Lorning
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), February 16, 2020
I played loud wonderful disco music while dancing and creating art in the very spot you're standing on in nothing but my underwear....I have always worked in nothing but my under wear.
There were three floors of amazing art including a shower made of phones, a mirrored bicycle and a real traffic light. No one ever bothered you.
One could roam freely throughout the entire building and relax as long as you liked.
However what I have loved the most about my gallery was the joy, peace and hope that filled the atmosphere. Great times and tears were often experienced in this love filled building. I will greatly miss this place. I have never experienced the amount of love that constantly poured from this building. I believe my continuous worship to God filled this place with love. I will miss those who have entered here... for most became my most precious friends. I thank God so much for my time here. It has been the best seven years of my life.
I will always endeavor to keep this building dedicated to the arts....always again.
Loring Cornish
Erected 2018 by Loring Cornish.
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Arts, Letters, Music • Churches & Religion. In addition, it is included in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 2011.
Location. 39° 16.886′ N, 76° 35.657′ W. Marker is in Baltimore, Maryland. It is in Fells Point. Marker is on Thames Street east of South Bond Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1622 Thames Street, Baltimore MD 21231, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Record Store Day (a few steps from this marker); Association of Maryland Pilots (within shouting distance of this marker); In Memory of Edward Fell / William Fell / Colonel Edward Fell / William Fell (within shouting distance of this marker); 1609 Shakespeare Street (within shouting distance of this marker); 1625 Shakespeare Street (within shouting distance of this marker); 823 South Bond Street (within shouting distance of this marker); 1627 Shakespeare Street (within shouting distance of this marker); 828 South Bond Street (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Baltimore.
Also see . . .
1. Loring Cornish. You Tube video (Submitted on January 20, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.)
2. Loring Cornish. You Tube video (Submitted on January 20, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.)
Credits. This page was last revised on August 5, 2021. It was originally submitted on January 20, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 775 times since then and 68 times this year. Last updated on June 8, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. Photos: 1. submitted on June 8, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. 2. submitted on January 20, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. 3. submitted on February 16, 2020, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.