Alexander Lee

What themes does your work involve?

People, places and things. Generally, my art is about myself and my inner and outer connection to my immediate environment, It's about my isolation in grief after having lost both my parents tragically and how I am continuously attempting to move forward and stay connected. These emotions are encapsulated in my works as waves, movements, power and rhythmic surges of energy, It's a cycle which will end only when everything ends.

Describe your creative process.

An idea presents itself; inspired by a mood, a conversation, a need, a want, an ambition. However crude it may initially be, rough and rudimentary, I know that in a few days I will have a lucid image in my mind, an uncontrollable process. The piece is clear. It's like the transformation we see in nature when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, which sometimes appears in my work. I never know quite when a piece is finished. In the studio, the viewers perspective or maybe it is never finished?

What influences your work? What inspires you?

The original impressionists! Not necessarily their artwork, but the stories of them. And the impact of my direct environment: the coast of Western Australia, the mountainous peaks of the Alps and the contrasts of dramatic seasonal change in Scandinavia. Keneticism i.e the ever changing, the constant struggle between the unstoppable force meeting the irremovable object which is a state we seem to dwell within.

What is good art? What makes a piece of art great?

It’s emotive art. Art that leaves you with an impression; you leave with a little bit of it. It's when you feel that the experience has changed you to a degree. If a piece is good also depends on the viewer, "I can bore you in a day or I can shock you in an instant but how many lifetimes would it take to create universal beauty?"