Artist statement
Doodles and squiggles from scraps of paper, the backs of envelopes, and margins of notebooks sketched out mostly when I was supposed to be engaged in something else more dutiful or productive are the basis for these colour improvisations.
Having no particular goal, the freedom to experiment freely with any and all colours, and no preconceptions of where it would take one made this process a very playful process. The ‘doodles’ provided a formal structure to which colours could be introduced as improvisations. This could be seen as analogous to how musicians improvise in the context of a particular song with a well defined chord progression adding new and colorful possibilities onto the essential pattern.
Artist bio
Repeatedly dropping in and out of creative artistic activities pretty much sums up my bio. I had a determined and focused period of time through the 1980’s into the 1990’s pursuing Art full time as a ‘career’. Although moderately successful, including a solo exhibition in the territorial Art gallery, this attempt essentially killed any illusions I had of making a livelihood from Art. From this period came two large public works — Autumn Morning in Law Center, and The Promise in the hospital foyer — both of which I am very proud of.
After that there has been a long period of remission punctuated by random projects, bouts of drawing, painting and printmaking, (lithography and etching) and a promising burst of work in the form of biological and botanical illustrations for flora’s and wildlife brochures.
I am now relapsing, dipping my toes back into the fickle waters of ‘Fine Art’ with a few new experimental tidbits.
– Lee Mennell
Previous event
Next event
