Artwork, Patrick Sean Lee [best ereader for pdf .txt] 📗

Noseblow--The Creation of the Universe

 

Noseblow... 

I'm not positive what year I painted this; near the end of my "career", though. My intent during those years (1988-1994) was to crack the markets of contemporary art. To sit among the masters working at the time. I did well for several years, selling most of my work in Laguna Beach and Palm Springs at shows and in galleries. Finally, in 1994, I made an appointment with a prominent gallery in Santa Monica, California. I loaded up all my best work, drove to the gallery, and met the owner. She walked out, surveyed what I'd brought for several moments, and then said, "We have enough of this type of work on display already. Thanks for coming up."

 

I went home in despair, packed up my art supplies, and never painted again. Thinking back on that day, I learned a valuable lesson. Everyone suffers rejection at some point in their career. The successful keep working, the unsuccessful quit.

Grandfather Clock--rear view

 

One of my Grandfather Clocks in a series.

 

I did this piece in 1992. I built the "superstructure", complete with working clockworks, pendulum, and weights. Then I began masking areas off and airbrushing it section by section. Visible on the side is one of the muses.

Always one of my favorites.

Ghetto Book--First Page

 

Ghetto Book was more an attempt to BUILD the structure, and keep it stable. I think there is something pure and clean in the white-primed, unpainted piece. But...I did complete the book. Sold it somewhere; can't remember just where.

The Passing of Jonathan--1992

 

I wrote a story back in...I don't know...1988? About a young artist THRILLED by his acceptance into a major gallery. He arrives one morning in a furious whirlwind of intent to set up his display, which included a thousand extension cords into its lights. Nearing completion, crazed with excitement, he trips on the mass of cords, and falls into the masterpiece, electrocuting himself to death.

 

I wrote the entire story on the inside of this structure. If you bend down and look inside, starting at the bottom left, the text goes line by line upward, then down to the bottom right. The End. :)

 

The passing of Jonathan has a ghostly shape, I thought this was a natural thing to do :)

Studio--circa 1990

 

I had brown hair then!

Sitting beneath several of my pieces...a few from my earlier phase. The one directly behind me with the white borders won First Place in Contemporary at a juried show. Barely visible behind me is a small piece that was featured in a local art magazine.

Mars Ain't So Far--circa, 1990

 

Mars Ain't So Far was photographed hanging in a gallery in Palm Springs. A client saw it shortly after and bought it. Very whimsical piece, I thought :)

Young Marvin Fuster Escapes the Burning Orphanage--circa, 1990

 

Long before I resurrected Marvin Fuster from an earlier book...my first completed novel that wasn't all that great...I wrote a small section relating how he escaped the hated orphanage he'd been placed in by Melvin Fuster, his abusive, drunken father. He simply torched the institution, and in the confusion, as the flames raged, he skedaddled away, smiling at his genius. See his little legs in black and white?

 

In the small square box in the upper left is part of the story.

 

Marvin finally grew up and moved out of hiding, down to Denver to begin his career as a petty thief, alcoholic dreamer of great thoughts:)

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Publication Date: 01-29-2014

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