The Role of an Artist

(photo taken in Amsterdam while I was painting "Remorse" in 2016)

I've been listening to a lot of Jordan Peterson lectures while I cut stencils or work on pieces in the computer as of late. He's amazingly insightful and I feel I understand myself and my motivations better the more I hear him speak.

He talks a lot about how life is suffering, and each of us needs to find something to do with our lives that makes that suffering bearable. For me, a person very high in trait openness, I've found I always need to be creating to feel excited about my life. The first series of paintings I created and put out into the world depicted superheroes suffering. At the time it was unknown to me why I needed to make them. I simply felt compelled to and followed a path into the unknown. Now that I've had years to reflect on it, I realize seeing idealized versions of ourselves going through pain is a symbol and a connection point for all of us. Their suffering represents all of our suffering, and it's the foundation of all of our stories.  

He has also said that "beauty is a pathway toward God. That a real piece of art opens your eyes to the domain of the transcendent." Those two sentences are really hard for me to get my head around. But, I think he's saying we have a concrete truth of our daily lives that is individual to us, and then there's the meta-truth of all of our lives. We see that meta-truth in our stories, our art, our music. And we all need these windows because we are so finite and limited. Over time some art is deemed sacred because the unknown shines through it in an articulated form. That is the role of an artist... to put a foot out into the unknown and make sense of it.

ART [WRK] Event with Tony Cartel

A video of Tony Cartel highlighting an event we had at my studio a few months back. A bit of him performing live along with DJ Toure providing the sounds. 

His next performance is April 5th in Chicago @ the Wire (8-11pm)

"Walking Away" - A LYFT Chicago street art tour (Nov 2017)

An interactive piece found at 2039 W. North Ave in Chicago. It's an honor to be a part of a Lyft street art tour, in which they'll be offering free rides to pieces they're commissioning all over the city. Be on the lookout for the dates...       

I conceived of this work when I was transitioning from coaching youth soccer to painting full time. I'd done both part-time for years. As more opportunities came for art, I found all of my thoughts and energy directed toward painting. I realized I couldn't perform either at a high level when trying to do both. It was clear I had to make a change... it was time to direct all of my attention toward painting and move on from a career I had loved for over a decade.  

That decision was made over a year ago. It's taken a while to find the right alley for the piece. The day after I wandered past this space and realized it would be perfect, Lyft contacted me to be a part of their tour. They loved the idea. Things rarely come together so effortlessly.     

"Mounted" - downtown Bloomington IL (Oct 2017)

12 x 35ft piece at the corner of Front and Prairie in Bloomington IL. 

Two years ago I had a vision of big gold frames all in a row, with horses sticking their heads out like stalls in a stable. When Kyle and Lacey Glandon asked me to do a piece on this building built in the 1880’s as a horse hospital, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

The man carrying the frame in the bricked-up entry for the horses is based on one of my favorite Norman Rockwell paintings, appearing on the March '46 cover of The Saturday Evening Post. 

It was a privilege to bring all of these elements together in a narrative that feels extremely personal. Art has always served as a mirror for me, showing me how I feel before I realize it. I definitely view this piece from the perspective of the unframed horse. Maybe it has something to do with me being a middle child, or because I hate being defined or confined in any way... but I look at him and feel he’s dreading what’s coming for some reason. 

A lot of thank you's to give out:
Thank you to Illinois Prairie Community Foundation and Lacey and Kyle Glandon for making this project happen! Couldn't have done it without Ben Hood helping every step of the way. It was amazing to have all the friends and family come by... it was great to see everyone. A special thank you  to Jan, Kristi and Wally Hood, Bill and Cindy Lee, Larysa, and the Ash family for a critical hand at some very needed moments. Hopefully this is the first of many pieces I do in Bloomington Normal.

"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:
_____________________________________________________________________________

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_

---

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