David Lee's
'We Are Human' Series
THERE ARE 2 COLLECTIONS HERE.
ONE YOU CAN SEE...
AND ONE THAT DISAPPEARED WHILE I WAS MAKING IT
21 finished works make up the first. The second is hidden inside them. The beginnings. The wrong turns. The corrections. The moments when the work was becoming something... and so was I. Most artists show you where they arrived. I kept what happened on the way there.
ENTER THE SERIES
A FINISHED MASTERPIECE HAS A STRANGE EFFECT ON MEMORY
Once you see the result, it's difficult to imagine it ever being anything else.
The uncertainty disappears.
The decisions disappear.
The things that didn't work disappear.
Eventually, the finished work begins to look almost inevitable...
IT WASN'T.
THIS IS THE SAME DRAWING.
The only thing inevitable about it?
I refused to quit. The final version of this drawing alone consumed over 3,000 hours of my life. That's over 3 years of drawing a single image...
At each stage there were decisions still to make. Problems still to solve.
Things I could see were wrong. Things I couldn't see were wrong yet.
So I worked.
Looked.
Changed something.
Looked again.
And continued.
Until eventually...
...the image you saw first existed.
BUT THE DRAWING WAS NOT THE ONLY THING CHANGING.
Drawn Years Apart...
2012 'Epic Growth'
Every problem forced me to see something I hadn't seen before.
2016 'Epic Growth 2'
Every correction demanded something I couldn't yet do well enough.
2018 'The Infinite Dimensions of Time and Possibility'
Every finished work changed what I was capable of bringing to the next one.
I WAS CREATING
THE DRAWINGS.
THE DRAWINGS
WERE CREATING ME.
quick story...
THE WOMAN I SPENT YEARS TRYING TO PROVE WRONG
In 9th grade, my art teacher told me something I hated:
“You are not born with talent. Talent is earned.”
I thought she was wrong.
So I studied.
Practiced.
Drew.
And came back the following year substantially better.
Her reaction gave me exactly what I wanted.
I thought I'd proved her wrong....
I HADN'T...
I'd Proved Her Right, Instead
2012
Years later, after awards, publicity, a trip to New York, a scholarship and thousands of hours spent studying and drawing, I finally understood what had happened.
I hadn't discovered some ability that had been hiding inside me...
2016 'From Conception To Attainment'
I'D BUILT IT.
A masterpiece was no longer merely evidence of what I could do.
It was evidence of what repeated creation had made me capable of doing.
INTRODUCING...
THE MASTERPIECE
IN THE MAKING
For many works in this collection, I preserved stages of their creation.
Not simply as behind-the-scenes photographs. As part of the work's history.
A finished work can stand alone.
Or its preserved states can reveal something the finished image cannot...
IT'S WHAT HAPPENED
ON THE WAY THERE.
An artwork can occupy a wall.
Its story can occupy a space.
Working on a project where this belongs?
Look Inside!
Yes.
Or Continue Reading This True Story...
“THAT'S MY CAR. I'M GOING TO BUY IT WITH A DRAWING.”
I hadn't asked if the car was for sale.
I hadn't made an offer.
And its owner, Nick, didn't think much of art.
It was a 1999 Monte Carlo.
My friend Rob and I watched Nick drive by in it one day when I made the declaration: “That's my car. I'm going to buy it with a drawing.”
From then on, whenever Nick drove by, Rob would point:
“There's your car.”
Eventually, Nick took me for a ride.
And offered me his car!
$1,200 he said.
“I'll take it.”
He asked if I had the money.
I told him I was NOT going to give him money.
I wanted to trade him a drawing.
He wasn't interested.
A few days later, Nick returned to my studio.
This time, I didn't bring up the deal.
He did.
He looked around the room.
Then pointed to one of my originals.
“I like this one.”
Eventually, we made the trade.
Nick got the artwork.
I got the Monte Carlo.
But there's one detail I haven't told you yet.
The drawing Nick chose...
Already had a title...
'FROM CONCEPTION
TO ATTAINMENT'
After dedicating over 20,000 hours into this series, I learned one very valuable Lesson...
ART DOESN'T END AT THE EDGE OF THE PAPER
A work of art has a second life after the artist lets it go.
It enters a home. A hallway. A restaurant. A hotel.
A room someone may enter only once in their life.
And there it encounters people the artist may never meet.
They bring their own histories. Their own questions. Their own interpretations.
The work no longer belongs entirely to the mind that created it.
SOMEONE ELSE
COMPLETES
THE ENCOUNTER
Every work in this collection began in essentially the same place:
Nowhere.
No finished image.
No physical object.
Only possibility.
Someone imagined something that wasn't there.
Then acted.
Reality answered back.
So they adjusted.
Acted again.
And continued.
A drawing simply makes that process unusually easy to see.
IMAGINE. ACT. OBSERVE. ADJUST. CONTINUE.
An artist knows this. So does an architect.
A designer. A builder. A founder. A parent.
Anyone who has ever looked at something
that did not yet exist and decided:
I'm going to make that real.
It's what we do...
WE'RE CREATORS.
YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS PROCESS...
Before the first guest enters…
Before the first artwork is hung…
Before stone, glass, light and texture become an environment…
Someone has to see what isn't there yet.
Then create it.
I create images.
You create environments.
SOMETIMES THOSE TWO ACTS OF CREATION BELONG TOGETHER.
Now, if you're ready... and if you'll allow me...
WHAT COULD WE CREATE FOR YOUR SPACE?
Allow me to introduce you
to my 'Masterpiece Experience'
• It's not JUST a collection of my most mesmerizing artworks...
• A Masterpiece Collection that doesn't ONLY elevate the room, but the viewers who walk by it...
• A genuinely curated and custom experience to fit any design needs...
INTRODUCING...
The Original 21-Piece Series
You've Just Seen A Few, Now View Them All
THE MASTERPIECE
IN THE MAKING
Preserved creation states considered individually or sequentially as part of an art program.
ALTERNATE
TREATMENTS
Change colors and styles.
RELATED WORKS
Multiple pieces capable of carrying a visual or conceptual thread through a larger environment.
ORIGINAL COMMISSIONS
New work developed around the narrative and needs of a particular project.
HAVE A PROJECT IN MIND?
LET'S SEE WHAT WE COULD CREATE FOR IT.
For licensing, commissions, existing works
and multi-piece art programs:
Explore the broader collection, selected works, project possibilities and ways to work together.
...ONE LAST WORK
REMAINS UNFINISHED
Not mine.
YOURS.
You have things you can do today...
that once seemed impossible.
Things you've learned so completely...
you've forgotten what it felt like NOT to know them.
Problems you now solve...
without remembering when they used to stop you.
Preserve it before it fades away...
GROWTH HAS A STRANGE HABIT
OF ERASING ITS OWN EVIDENCE...
Once an ability becomes ordinary, we forget that it was ever extraordinary.
That's why I kept mine.
Not to show you how talented I became...
To remember what a beginning looks like after you've seen the ending.
YOUR PRESENT ABILITY IS EVIDENCE OF WHERE YOU ARE
IT IS NOT A VERDICT ON WHERE YOU CAN GO
You don't have to be capable of everything your future will require already.
Sometimes...
YOU BECOME CAPABLE
BY CREATING
WHAT COMES BEFORE IT.
And after twenty-one works, I keep returning to the same paradox:
WE CREATE THE WORK.
THE WORK CREATES US.
At 3 years old, I began asking a question:
“WHY AM I ON EARTH?”
21 works later, it has left me with another...
WHAT WILL YOU CREATE WHILE YOU'RE HERE?
Sneak Peek!
...What's inside the collection brochure?
Yes.
