By Angela Blue

She dabs her brushes in various colors, making sure to cover every inch of the canvas with her steady and precise brush strokes. “I have to take my time because sometimes I mess up,” she says. She doesn’t know what her picture will look like when it’s finished; she’s simply painting. She adds more color and begins telling about her dreams of being famous. Not necessarily as a famous painter; just famous.

Her real name is Linder Lawrence, but her signature introduction is, “Hi, I’m Hollywood, car racer.”  Every day she spends time at Elliott’s Fairgrounds, a coffee shop in Ghent, talking to just about everyone she sees. She calls herself a car racer even though she has never driven a car.

Hollywood is mentally disabled, but she is able to live on her own with the help of Hope House, a foundation that provides assistance with household maintenance, cooking, finances, transportation, medical needs and grocery shopping.  The organization also encourages creativity by sponsoring the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival, where Hollywood and others sell their artwork.  The twice-yearly festival will be held this year May 16-17 and again October 17-18.

Hollywood’s paintings are colorful and lively, just like she is. She considers no one to be a stranger, and she is always talking openly with anyone who will listen about her dreams of driving a race car, going to the moon, having big money and especially of becoming famous.

“I don’t want to live here no more,” she says.  “I want to go to Hollywood and say ‘Bye Bye, Norfolk.”  She constantly talks about the entertainment capital of the world, and that is how she earned her nickname, along with the fact that she always wants to be in the spotlight.  “I want the whole world to know about me,” she says repeatedly.  “I want to be in The New York Times and Entertainment Tonight, and put me on YouTube.”    

She was recently featured in a YouTube video that was originally supposed to be about Elliott’s Fairgrounds, but ended up being more about her. She appeared in almost every scene of the video, dancing and saying how much she likes the coffee shop. There are at least 12 videos of her on YouTube, and she’s always striving for more publicity and wanting to be in more publications.

So far, she’s been written about in The Virginian-Pilot, and she is mentioned on The Hope House website, saying she is “an artist, NASCAR lover and all around bon vivant who is living proof that life can be rich, vital and rewarding for those with developmental disabilities.” Her picture appeared on a billboard for Hope House recently, and she was ecstatic to know that so many people would get to see her face every day. One step closer to being famous.

Although she has not made it down the red carpet in Hollywood, she is well known among the people of Ghent, and she is treated like a celebrity by employees and customers of the coffee shop. For her birthday last year, a friend bought a red carpet for her to walk on when entering Tortilla West, the restaurant where her party was held. Her friends throw a birthday party for her every year, complete with a cake and a load of presents. “I’m spoiled rotten,” she often says.

Hollywood’s friendships are by no means one-sided. She gives advice to people and always tries to lift others up.

“Hollywood has consistently been a best friend to me for years, and her laugh is contagious,” said Diana Ray, an employee at Elliott’s. Ashley Spencer, another employee, agrees saying, “I can pick out her laugh out of everyone here, and it always makes me smile.”

Hollywood feels the same way about the girls at the coffee shop, and she is quick to correct anyone who calls them friends. “They’re not friends; they’re my soul sisters,” she says.  Many of her soul sisters support her art hobby by purchasing her paintings for just $10 a piece.

In her apartment, Hollywood is currently working on a tic-tac-toe painting that will accompany all the others for sale at the festival. She concentrates on her painting, and then stops again to talk about more television shows she wants to be on. “I want to be on 20/20 and say, ‘My name is Hollywood Car Racer, and I’m from Norfolk, Virginia.’” Always making herself known to her audience is important to Hollywood, but everyone knows who she is already.  After all… she is famous, perhaps more than she realizes.