Lee's Artlog

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2002- All things must come to an end. A sister piece finale to Novaburn, Wrymwood is the figurative end to my work in Bryce.  Its name also stretches to the Bible, where a fated meteor burning bright as a lamp strikes the water, making the oceans taste bitter, poisoning, causing great death and destruction. 

It is no coincidence that I chose to post Wyrmwood at this time.  There is great beauty to behold in destruction exacted in a climactic sigh of loss.  I think it is human nature to keep building on something, (even if the base is coroded or poisoned,) because we don’t want to get lost in the great pyramid of existence when upheaval occurs.  Modernism- such an ignorant term, focusing on the existentialism of today- is at an end. It is so easy to categorize everything that has happened since we created the blanket definition of ‘modernism’ to define all art since the industrial revolution. Now as the internet sits in the driver’s seat, the pundits and labelmakers are quick to say, “Oh yes, it’s a technological product of Modernism, therefore it is so, and modernism continues,” because they themselves fear the change that has already begun.  A good example is a statement I hear all the time about the environment from my progentors: “It’s your future. You fix it for your children. I’ll be long gone by then anyway.” So that leads us to the question of why sufficent change wasn’t enacted sooner or in previous generations that passed the buck to them.  It is because all generations seek to build and preserve. I propose that progress at some point becomes moot when the being or idea that is, is completely different than it was when it began.  So in this sense all that was Modernism in the current context is at an end, and is as antiquated as the movements before it. Advertising, television, radio, art- All forms of communication must bow to the usage of the computer chip as it slowly makes obsolete all before it and then repackages it into a new slick form.

We are now in the Individualist age, defined by our own self-indulgent aesthetics, ideas, ubiquitous consumerism, pop commericalism, instant self-gratification and ‘celibrityship’. The computer is a fixture of media and interaction for the future.  I can construct art that thousands can view in my BLartOG, critique, and purchase, on their own without actually seeing it in an established gallery. In this context, the art I make allows me to be the product of my own design, and also the creation of my own dreams. Ideas and words combined with art create meaningful impact and liberate the subliminal mind to extract its own conclusions. Individualism is about interpreting, creating and packaging to be consumed by the ever hungry public in a new format, deconstructing the old and reemerging in the new. It is about communicating ideas to someone around the world without even leaving your chair. It is about the radio and the Sirius Sattelites of the world. It is about television and advertising having to readapt to a culture revolting against being a prisoner of involuntary communication bombardment and the lies of an ever manipulative government and media. Freedom is now and we have a choice and voice on all matters.        

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2007- I really learned a lot during that first semester of Art Center as I felt bloodied and beaten as never before. The level of stress to me was made insurmountable so that there would be a good percentage of attrition to weed out the weak, insecure and dischordant before Term 2.

Head and Hands was the ultimate boot camp example of this, with my instructor David Luce. Initially I was highly intimidated by him, as he was the expectation that I had for an instructor of high caliber at Art Center. (-This was why of course, I came here.) Knowledgeable and passionate with a long resume of work, David made me discredit my work and what I thought I knew. No compliments and no rewards. It was important to begin anew and strip me bare ass white. It was scary to abandon that which I had become so accustomed to doing in art. 

I sat down at the end of the semester and discussed my progress with David clenching to every compliment that he gave me as being sincere, because I knew that by then I had run the gauntlet, huffing and puffing all the way to the finish line.  David told me one thing in particular that really stuck in my mind: “I’m not worried about you Lee. I know you are going to succeed. You have a method to how you work.” By the time it was over, I had such a deep seated respect and admiration for him and how he does things, not only in art, but in teaching, it was hard not to like him and thank him for everything he had done.  

Remy was a portrait of another student in the class and was one of the final pieces of the semester. I got a bit into design and scared of messing up a good start so it became too controlled.  I think part of the problem as well is I do sometimes try to emulate other artists too much, – as with this piece, so my work comes out a tad boring because others have already done it.