Lee Price is a realist painter with an impressive portfolio of art. She knew from childhood that she wanted to do something related to art when she grew up. “My mother was a high school art teacher. From a very young age I was engaged with art either through watching my mother do her own painting and drawing or having her take me to art museums and galleries on a regular basis,” she recalls.
Lee received a BFA in painting from Moore College of Art, but she says she didn’t learn much about painting technique there. “It wasn’t until much later, when I moved to New York City and began studying with various teachers, that I began studying painting and drawing in a more formal way,” she says.
Arguably, her most noteworthy paintings are found in her series, Women & Food. These very personal paintings are self-portraits. “Since I was very young I have struggled with issues related to food. I can remember being in grade school, very thin and tall, yet trying to lose weight,” she recalls. “A critic once commented, in regard to the subject matter of my paintings, ‘The women aren’t grossly fat or pathetically thin, but their lives seem to be oppressively ruled by food.’ It would be a very accurate description of the role food has played in my life—bouncing between abstinence and complete loss of control.”
Lee created these paintings with the intent to deliver the message of a sense of distraction. She masterfully addresses “how we grasp for things that distract us from being present when the present is too uncomfortable for us to sit with.” Lee further explained that this “checking out” (or compulsion) often creates more harm than if we had just sat with the discomfort in the first place. “I think the best ones show not only the negative aspects of this behavior but also the comfort that’s found in doing it…and the absurdity of it,” she says
Many paintings in the series have an aerial POV. This wasn’t by accident. It should not be interpreted as voyeurism or God’s eye, Lee says. “It’s the subject looking down on herself. Watching herself in the act of a compulsive behavior; observing. Being completely aware of what she’s doing but unable to stop,” she explains. “I’ve spoken to friends who have had this same experience in relation to drug addiction. It’s like an out of body experience.”
Lee is inspired by her own ideas and believes that is, in fact, what art is all about. “You have something to say and you’ve learned a way of saying it, and you feel like you HAVE to say it,” she explains. “One of my favorite quotes is ‘the more personal, the more universal’.” So instead of “self-aggrandizing” over a personal idea, Lee chooses to create. “[What] I have found is that I put [the idea] out there and so many others resonate with it. It’s a way of connecting with people.”
“Usually ideas just pop into my head and I go with them without questioning it too much. I have found this works better than trying to contrive subject matter,” Lee explains. An image comes to her mind and then she makes loose sketches to work out the composition. “From there I have to ’build’ the scene in reality—buying or making props, finding the right setting, etc.,” she says. “Once the scene has been created, I bring in my photographer and he shoots the images that I will work from.”
For more information, go to www.leepricestudio.com.
