Lee Etheredge IV

Paintings and Drawings

I often ask myself - How can I like the paintings of both Piet Mondrian and Cy Twombly at the same time? Because I do and from an outward perspective they are opposites and a viewer seemingly should prefer one or the other. As I examine this feeling it lays bare the inner conflict I have where my perfectionist nature comes up against fluidity, randomness and accident. My paintings are a visual expression of this inner struggle between order and chaos and are born from my typewriter drawings where geometric and organic forms are united.

AMA23-sin
Oil on linen 2023

JLE24-sin
Oil on linen 2024

RYL24-sinOil on linen 2024

Drawings

potomac drop one add one expanding 2009 Type on Japanese paper

potomac 3 up 3 down 2009 Type on Japanese paper (Detail)

Creating drawings with the typewriter in the age of computers --- Many of my drawings are based on rules and simple algorithms set for the drawing prior to typing and then visually realised upon completion. I may use found words, phrases, lyrics or even randomly generated letters as a starting point before proceeding with the drawing. These simple algorithms create extremely complex visual results and relate to many forms in nature as explored and explained by the mathematicians Stephen Wolfram and Benoit Mandelbrot and for me these concepts establish the mathematical underpinning of my work.

potomac reverse word space 2009 Type on Japanese paper (Detail)

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