The Road Least Traveled
Usually Needs a 4-Wheel Drive
It all started because I was born a Pennsylvania Dutch girl who wasn't allowed to paint; the hex sign* to the left was one of my first efforts and yes, I still paint them on occasion. Women's only creative outlets encompassed cooking, quilts, and child bearing. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any of those defining my entire life. And there are myriad paintings that I could present as examples, but the ones you see here are from a project I feel most proud to have been a part.
There used to be a tiny restaurant in Taos, NM, called La Folie, with a world-class French chef who was my friend. There was also a festival that has since gone by the wayside dubbed Taos Talking Pictures, which was responsible for creating the filming boom. I was privileged to decorate La Folie for one of the last of those festivals and consider all components of the display to involve painting in some manner, from the 8' T-shirt and hanger (representing paying for my education by working in one of those graphic sweatshops) to the trompe l'oeil ceiling in the dining room. R.C. Gorman was there while I was installing the collection and said he 'liked my style'. There's no way to tell anyone how much that meant.
(*Wooden hex signs are available in 12" & 18", custom made by special order on contact through savannah.lee@gmail.com. Browse the Cookbook for styles.)
Painting: The act of creating with colored pigments on a support or the finished work created by a painter.
They Say It's Impossible
Because Nobody's Done It Yet
It's hard for me to label something as trompe l'oeil, because I feel that's what painters have always been trying to do - fool the eye. From the moment medieval artists defined a third dimension to their icons, artists have been pushing to draw you into the surface of their canvases. Those of us not satisfied by the limitations end up painting everything that stands still for a moment. And I mean that literally; I covered a biplane with designs once upon a time when I was a hippie, van painter (read 'Soul Stealers). My own, fixer-upper home is covered in faux finishes inside and out. I wish I could give you a virtual tour, but I haven't learned how to do that - yet.
Just get rid of labels and explore. It's the only way to find out where that road leads.
“A notion of character, not so much discredited as simply forgotten, once held that people only came into themselves partway through their lives. They woke up, were they lucky enough to have consciousness, in the act of doing something they already knew how to do . . .”
Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire