"I'm Sorry" print release

The Astro Boy piece I did in Nagoya earlier this year was the simplest piece I did in Japan, but also happened to be my favorite.

I brought the stencils back and did a small run of spray-paint and acrylic originals on wood, canvas and cardboard. They all sold out and caught the eye of Billy at Galerie F in Chicago in the process. He felt it would make a great print, and set me up with Andrew from ARGhrist Prints. We worked through the best way to screen it, creating an edition of 45 on grey paper for Galerie F titled "Sorry" (click here to purchase), and a small edition of 10 on brown paper for me to sell on my own titled "I'm Sorry" (click to purchase).

In Japan I made an Astro Boy piece for Oakoak on paper and drew my tattoos on it just to make him laugh. He really got a kick out of it. So when I had the opportunity to make my own small edition, it made sense to create a few more for others to enjoy.  And on the brown paper... making the boots red just brought it all together.  

My tattoos are pieces inspired by a few of my favorite artists. Aakash Nihalani on my hands, Mrzyk and Moriceau on my wrist, Frank Stella on my forearms, and Toba Khedoori on my chest. I've learned different lessons from each of their work:

Aakash Nihalani's work is simple and direct. He plays with space, perspective and reality. I have it on my hands because, inexplicably it was the only place that felt right. It reflects how binary we often are in categorizing everything: right / wrong, up / down, black / white, off / on, man / woman. It's intriguing to me that one could see them as opposites or the same, all based on one's perspective.   

Mrzyk & Moriceau are brilliant in the way they can distill an idea down into something very simple... yet the more you look, the more you see. Their work shows a great sense of humor, and they're brilliant at using symbols to tell bigger stories. This piece can represent chasing after the perfect fit in one's life. There's also a masculine / feminine dynamic to it. I have it on my wrist so the key and the keyhole can chase each other in circles.

Toba Khedoori's work has taught me a lot about using negative space in my own work. She creates quiet, beautiful pieces with restraint and a sense of depth. The subjects are usually common enough to feel familiar, and yet she makes them feel so special... worth revering. I have this on my chest to remind me to feel deeply and remain open.

And then there's Frank Stella. This painting changed my life. I was in college at the time as an undeclared major. I took a drawing class on a whim, as I used to love drawing when I was younger. The professor took me aside a few months in and asked why I wasn't an art major. He said he could take one look at my drawings and see I truly loved it... and that life's too short not to do the things you love. I was a little hesitant as I wasn't sure what kind of job one gets with an art degree. The next week he asked if I'd like to join the art club on a trip to the St. Louis art museum. On the trip I turned a corner and saw this giant painting... and it stopped me dead in my tracks. I stood in front of it for 20-30 minutes and I cried. I have no idea why it made me emotional, but at that moment I knew I wanted to paint... and I wanted to make people feel. I changed my major to art as soon as I got back, and ended up graduating with a BFA in painting. After being out of college for a few years, the amount of work I was making started to dwindle and I hadn't tried to show anywhere. I got these tattooed on my forearms to remind me of the feeling I had that day, and that I needed to keep painting and getting it out in front of people.    

TMNT project with Nickelodeon and Good Details

"We will bring 6 of Chicago's FAVORITE artists together to battle it out on canvas"
(Good Details Chicago)
One Theme: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The winner designs the NASCAR Monster Cup Series Trophy

Max Sansing

Lisa Gray

JC Rivera

Sentrock

Tubz

E.LEE

When the votes came in, I won both the in-person and on-line votes. The panel of judges chose Max and Tubz to design the trophy for the cup, and awarded me a 20 x 60ft trackside billboard. How and why the panel chose the way they did is still a mystery to me, but I'm not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Photo from the Pace car - driving around the track as the race started

"Free Bird Seed" Soho House Chicago (June 2017)

Below is an interview I did with Caters News UK about the piece:
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When and where was this artwork created? Was there a reason you chose this location?

“Free Bird Seed” was created for the Soho House Chicago. The two front cornerstones of their building are painted each month by a different artist. Lance Curran from Threadless (a Chicago company that works with a lot of artists) curates the wall for Soho, and contacted me last year to set me up for a month.
The piece was for June 2017.

What do you use to create your artwork, whats your technique?

I make my street pieces on the computer. Once I’m happy with a concept and the way it looks, I print what I’ve made onto paper. I create stencils from the paper to use as guides to lay out each wall, and as masks to fill in color. Then I use spray paint, acrylic paint with brushes, and paint markers to finish the piece.

What inspired you to create this? Was it something you were commissioned to do?

I do street art because I like connecting with people. I was asked to do these particular walls for the month of June and given the latitude to paint whatever I wanted. Over the past few years I’ve done a number of street pieces referencing comic book images of superheroes at their lowest moments: when they’re depressed, hurt, grieving. But recently I’ve been itching to do the exact opposite: pieces with Wile E Coyote at his best, when he’s showing his courage, ingenuity, grit. This project was the perfect opportunity to do so. The two corners (four walls) allowed me to put the viewer in the middle of an ongoing story. Not to mention enticing the roadrunner with bird seed seemed perfect as the space between the two corners house two restaurants (one being the Chicken Shop).

Why am I inspired to create pieces such as these? Probably because I myself don’t like being categorized or narrowly defined. It’s humanizing in my opinion to show the dark side of a “hero” and the greatness of a “failure”. All of us have both sides, and how one is defined at any given moment is simply a matter of perception.  

But I also like using iconic characters from popular culture because we can all connect through our shared stories. Strangers can have discussions about the pieces because they’re all coming to it with context. Context also allows me to say more with less. This idea of distilling ideas down to their core and eliminating noise is a bit of an obsession of mine. It’s really important to me that my work blend into their surroundings as seamlessly as possible by using the architecture and the context of the area. I want it to feel as real as possible for the viewer. Like Wile E chasing the roadrunner, I’ve probably never fully achieved this… but nevertheless, that’s always the goal. 
 

Do you have any future plans or projects?

Yes, I have many plans and projects I’m working toward. I’d ultimately like to do 20-30 different Wile E Coyote pieces over the next few years and make a book. I’m participating in two group shows in galleries later this year, and have a solo show planned for next year. I’m also working on a number of designs to create my own clothing. If people are interested in staying up to date with my projects and shows they can go to the "contact" page at WorksByELEE.com and sign up or follow me on Instagram @_e.lee_

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An E.LEE "open studio" event - Hubbard Street Dance pop up

Come see core members of Hubbard Street Dance (some of the best contemporary dancers in the country) in an hour long performance, with E.LEE's artwork as their backdrop.  

Thursday Sept 14th 7-8:30pm.    

Location: Enter the alley at 812 N Damen Ave, Chicago 60622

"From the Shadows" - E.LEE solo show - Sept 2016

It's hard to know where to start this story. I guess I'll begin with my 7 year marriage ending in an amicable divorce early in 2016. This was a huge change for me obviously. I needed to get away to get some clarity... to figure out what the next stage of my life should look like. I sold or donated most of my possessions (except for my art collection), and booked a trip to Europe for as long as I could make work. It ended up being 3 months of painting whenever and wherever I could (with tons of help along the way from Sick boy, Simon Butler, Oakoak, and Copyright), and I returned back to Chicago on my birthday in late June. 

Good Details, (a gallery located in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago) approached me to have a solo show. It was July when we got together, and they wanted me for Sept. 9th... less than two months away. This seemed fairly impossible, as I was still looking for an apartment and a painting studio to work. But after they heard the situation, they urged me to use the basement of the gallery for my studio, and offered up their couches for as long as I needed. Impossible turned into feasible, and In a few days I found a room I could rent from a friend. So began the 10-12 hour days in the basement of the gallery. Lunches and dinners became peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to help eliminate distractions... and a set of pull ups and squats after each bathroom break helped me counteract sitting for such long periods of time while I worked.   

The focus of the show would be a series I'd been developing for a few years referencing comic book images of superheroes in their most painful moments. It has meant a lot to me personally to highlight the conflict and emotion the characters go through, as I started this series when I was a bit depressed and didn't feel I was living up to my potential. Identifying with these characters allowed me to see the state I was in as just a hurdle to overcome. This show would be a culmination of this series, a room full of life-sized fallen heroes surrounding the viewers. Creating a sense of depth, realism, and drama though light and shadow had also become an important aspect of the work. The concept and name "From the Shadows" seemed to fit perfectly.

I used the two huge windows on one side of the gallery to take the idea even further... creating wood cutouts with lights projected on them so their silhouettes cast shadows on curtains.

With a lot of help, I got the show done and hung by September 9th at 5:58pm. The show opened at 6. A huge thank you to Pia and Gary, JJ, Ben, Mac, Dante, Tony, Floyd, Shannon, Troy, Grace, and the many others that helped me along the way to make this show possible!  

"Dragged Under"

"Damaged"

"By the Throat"

"Closing In"

"Sacrifice"

"Undertow"

Shots from the night of the show:
(photos by PJ Gordon)

News article on E.LEE and Oakoak in Osaka Japan

Read the article

Write up in MTN - World

Read the article

Behind the Scenes - "Hanging Around" (Shoreditch / London)

It was my first time in London. I'd spent a few days in galleries and museums, a few nights out with friends. It was already Saturday night and my flight back to Barcelona was Tuesday morning. I finally had a wall and paint thanks to Lee at Global Street Art, and just finished mocking everything up in the computer. That gave me Sunday to get the stencils printed and cut, and Monday to paint the piece. It would be a very full two days, but definitely doable. Little did I know it would be less painful to walk on broken legs than get something printed on a Sunday in London.

Everything started wonderfully... my London host (Simon) called the closest print shop. They answered the phone and said they were open until 5. So I take the bus (which is always fun to figure out), and when I get there... there is no print shop at the address. Nothing. No store at all. I figure I'm an idiot somehow and just read the address wrong. So I start asking strangers for help and find out I'm in the right spot... just 4 years too late. Maybe after a decade the updates will make it to Google maps.
So I look up the next closest branch, and walk because I can't figure out how to get there very easily by bus. After an hour or so I'm hungry and sweaty and get to the print shop. It's closed.
Since I only have data in England, I borrow a stranger's phone and call again. They answer again. However, this time they give me one key bit of information: they're the only branch open on Sunday and all of the calls to the closed branches route to them. Long story even longer... by the time I get back to Simon's studio with everything printed, it's 5pm. I'm exhausted. I just cut a stencil for the outline of the piece and finish at 4 in the morning.

The good news is the struggle of it forced me to figure out more efficient ways to do the stencils and the painting. It occurred to me that I didn't need multiple stencils to fill in each color of the piece. I could just do the outline, fill it in by hand, and then put the outline over it again at the end (and clean up the edges). I've done a lot of pieces since with this same technique. "Hanging Around" definitely holds a special place in my heart for what I learned from it, and how much of a pain in the ass it was to make happen :) 

Behind the Scenes - "Framed" Collaboration with Copyright in Bristol, UK

I went to Bristol to help Sick boy pull off his "10 year print retrospective". He was moving his studio to Paris and this was the culmination of the time he had spent creating work in Stokes Croft. My last three days were set aside for Copyright and I to do a piece together.
I spent the entire first day cutting the four layers of stencils I needed for my part of the project. We got to the wall early the next morning, measured everything out, and Copyright did his part first. Then I framed it and shaded it.

The final piece:

It was an experiment for the two of us. Copyright had done many mirror images before, but never with the images different. He had to change the hands and shoulders when changing the perspective, and he said it was a good challenge. He liked the result of them interacting, and thought he'd do it more in the future. 

For me, I had wanted to frame other people's street art in gold frames for a while. Logistically this was the first time I figured out how I was going to do it. In the future I know I want the frame to be way thicker... and I only shaded the piece with shadow black (or translucent black). It doesn't come across as realistic as I'd like. It solidified to me that the areas of shadow have to be an actual change in color for it to feel the way I want. I do that whenever possible now.      

Behind the Scenes - "Remorse" (Slotermeer / Amsterdam)

Superman has a strong moral code, a clear purpose in life, and voluntarily puts himself in harms way to help others. He symbolizes the best of humanity. Referencing a page out of DC Comics' "Injustice: Gods Among Us #6" by Mike Miller, to me this piece is a metaphor for the internal conflict we feel when we try to do the right thing, but end up hurting someone in the process.