I’ve been an artist since I began finger-painting in kindergarten, my enthusiasm continually growing way past graduating from Old Dominion University’s art program in the Early 1970s. In 1974 one of my paintings, “Plant & Dresser”, took First Place Painting in the annual Stockley Gardens Ghent Arts Festival in Norfolk, Virginia. In that same show, I took both First Place, Photography and Second Place, Drawing.
©Copyright Tim Lee All Rights Reserved Worldwide
“Plant & Dresser”, Oil on Canvas 36×36″ 1974 (from the collection of Walter Mills, Penn State University)
One year later, another one of my oil paintings, “D”, was accepted by the Tidewater Artist’s Association, 23rd Annual Biennial Irene Leach Exhibition and displayed in the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, May-June 1975.
©Copyright Tim Lee All Rights Reserved Worldwide
“D” Oil on Canvas 4×5′ 1975 (from the collection of Douglas Welch, New York City)
During that same period, I founded the Tidewater Picture Company, a custom photographic processing laboratory specializing in high-end custom printing and film developing services. Concurrently, I instructed advanced, beginning, and intermediate photography classes at the Tidewater Community College, Chesapeake, Virginia campus. These three disciplines — painting, drawing, and photography — eventually slammed headlong into years of experience as a free-lance graphic artist. A perfect marriage of techniques and technologies.
4-Way Paintings
Maxine GEN003 Mothership ©Copyright Tim Lee All Rights Reserved Worldwide
GEN003 Detail 005 ©Copyright Tim Lee All Rights Reserved Worldwide
This is the first ever look at a full MAXINE (in this case, MAXINE GEN003) 17-piece “Mothership”, meaning, a single 44×44-in “Mother” with a compliment of 16 separate 24×24-in “Drones”, cloned from the Mothership but painted separately such that every drone, although sharing Mother’s DNA is — unique. Each of the 17 pieces, including Mother, can be rotated in any direction, displayed en masse like this image on a single wall, or hung separately throughout a household or business environment for an elegant statement.
GEN003 Detail 002 ©Copyright Tim Lee All Rights Reserved Worldwide
I am so damned pleased with this Mothership image, because it is the first time I, too, am “seeing” what — up until now — has been a floor plan existing only in my head.
A Mothership can be sold separately as numbered siblings, or sold together as a homogenous Mothership family.
The blue “frames” are digital only, and are meant to illustrate approximate framing suggestions.
GEN003 Detail 014 ©Copyright Tim Lee All Rights Reserved Worldwide
+ + + + +
History of 20-Minute Paintings (4-Way Paintings)
“Inside the Fishbowl” Oil & Enamel on Masonite (circa 1979)
“Inside the Fishbowl” ©Copyright Tim Lee All Rights Reserved Worldwide
One day I walked into my living room and realized I’d become so familiar with the artwork hanging on my walls that I no longer paid attention to them. In my mind, that’s not what art should be about: Art should constantly confront, and one should learn something new, see something different with each confrontation. A fresh glimpse away from the ordinary.
Just for the heck of it, I arbitrarily stepped up to one of the paintings and turned it upside down. Bingo, it was like I had slipped into a totally different room — or, perhaps stumbled down a wonderful rabbit hole. I flip-flopped every painting in the room regardless of subject matter. Upside-down portraits hung side-by-side with topsy-turvy landscapes. Later that evening, I walked to my studio and began painting an image that was intended to be hung in any direction. It was a challenging experience.
I call these paintings “20-Minute Paintings”, because I learned to force myself to rotate the canvas every 20 minutes while actively painting on them. In the old days I used a chess-game timer set to 20 minutes. Then one day it was stolen along with several still-wet paintings. Maybe by a harried rabbit looking for more than a timepiece. Go figure.
At any rate, “Inside the Fishbowl” is one of my earliest 20-Minute, 4-Way paintings. A simple twist in any direction and one’s living environment is immediately transformed. Over and over again. A wonderful conversation piece.
+ + + + +
More Art
©Copyright Tim Lee All Rights Reserved Worldwide
