Built Up / Oil on Canvas / 72 x 120 inches
A Creek / Oil on Canvas / 72 x 96 inches
They Stayed Buzy Amid the Sorrow / Oil on Canvas / 67.5 x 50 inches
Built Up / Oil on Canvas / 72 x 120 inches
Lee Tracy’s paintings from the archive, circa 2005-2015, are a bridge to her current work, which is a new artwork that places the history of her work in a new context. Her past artistic aims are grounded in long-term projects with trajectories expressing loss and change, vulnerability, and sentimental imagery.
“The ideal was that art could create change in our world. But did early paintings exploring themes of loss adequately express the danger I sensed for humankind? The need for preservation is a paramount message. Experimental text-based art emerged and over a decade accumulated into a series of 100 works directly addressing urgent problems called the Demandments. Through agit-prop I used my voice to list universal imperatives. I shouted a warning. Naming the issues and their practical solutions, lifted me. I was set free. It was only then that I experienced a joy that radiated into the rest of my life. This body of work expresses that joy.
But this question remains. As an artist, how do I make art that communicates all that I want to say? I’ve worked on that answer by reexamining the history of my work and putting it into a narrative.”
The work on display represents Tracy’s period of letting go. The paintings are part of a journey of change; celebratory works of joy that lead Tracy inwards to discover hope exists and how it works. Soon there will be a new conversation to join.