Read the full interview at CanvasRebel
" We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lee Brock. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lee below.
Lee, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
When very young I jumped into automatic abstraction as my artistic preference. My work has always been edgy and frequently hard to digest. Some early comments were that my art looked angry, too much black, the line work too intense – I was young and angry, they got that part right. Now that I have been exploring this art for over fifty years people won’t say this to my face anymore but I know they still want something gentler from me. I don’t think many viewers want to be challenged visually...."
About Lee Brock from the writers at See | Me
(Learn more about the See | Me group)
Lee Brock, a prolific visual artist, calls both Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, her creative homes. With a studio in each location, she navigates the dynamic interplay between traditional techniques and contemporary digital methods, seamlessly blending fine arts with client-based design.
Her approach encompasses both automatic and action styles, resulting in a body of work that is a captivating dance of colors and brushstrokes.
One article beautifully encapsulates Lee's essence, describing her work as: "Essential Brock: a study in reds, blues, and yellows with swirls of black ink, its dancelike brushstrokes and bright colors expressing a sense of gratitude for life's spontaneous twists and turns."
Lee Brock's artistic repertoire is as diverse as it is engaging. She effortlessly shifts between automatic, non-representational art and more measured, decorative pieces, showcasing her versatility and commitment to exploring different facets of her creativity.
Her art has entered museums, associations, and galleries in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami, Florida. Lee's work is not confined to a single style or medium but reflects her evolution as an artist, inviting viewers to join her on a visual journey through different perspectives.
When asked about her affinity for automatic and non-representational art, Lee shares, "Working with this process entertains me, but more importantly, it centers and calms me down - like being thrown into a washing machine - bumpy along the way but cleaner when finished." This profound connection to her creative process speaks to the therapeutic nature of her art, offering both the artist and the audience an immersive experience.
Lee Brock's artistic roots trace back to her early exposure to diverse cultures and art during her travels in Europe. "I was fortunate to live and travel abroad when I was young, particularly in Europe. This life exposed me to multitudes of art and culture, and I just knew I had to become an artist. I started with a natural talent for realism but was soon attracted to abstract art. I love to travel and see new things, and this automatic and non-representational art I discovered excited me just like travel does."
Lee Brock invites us to share her enthusiasm for life's unpredictable beauty in each stroke, color, and composition. Her art is not merely a visual spectacle but a heartfelt expression of gratitude for the journey, embracing both the spontaneous and the measured with equal enthusiasm.
Full Bio on Request
Formative years spent in the United States, Spain and Switzerland.
Education
California College of Arts and Crafts - Oakland, CA. / University of Texas - Austin, TX / The Arts Student League - NYC, NY / Provincetown Art Association and Museum - Provincetown, MA / Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill - Truro, MA / Fine Arts Work Center - Provincetown, MA / Broward College - Ft Lauderdale, MA Graduated 2013 with high honors from its Graphic Design Technology Program
Influences
New York School of Abstract Expressionism, Modern and Traditional Japanese Sumi,
Europeans and North and South American Mid Century Modern design
Work shown in museums, art galleries, art associations in Provincetown, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami
PROCESS NOTES
Digital Art Collection is scalable, color customizable, and surface printable for mass production. This collection was designed with the hospitality industry in mind, however, it extends itself to a wide range of purpose including children’s art.
ANALOG ART PROCESS
Quick, receptive and responding to the process.
Gestural
MEDIUMS
Digital
Drawing
Painting
Print Making
Oils, Pastels, Charcoal, Collage
COLLECTION NOTES
NOTES ON DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
Paris Collection: "In 2015 while I was traveling in France I started designing my abstract digital postcards on my iPad. This was the inception of a growing number of digital image collections I am working on. I lived in Europe as a teen learning that in such a condensed area with many languages good graphics are very important. I find French graphic design often proves that there is no reason why beauty and humor can't be part of that important process. Oh, yes...and the food! " Lee Brock
Miami Collection: "I have lived in Fort Lauderdale for over ten years. This collection is not only about Miami but all of South Florida — a place where the leaves on the trees are bigger than me, the clouds glow orange and pink, Celia Cruz is a saint, I-95 never sleeps and just over there are the Everglades and over there is the third largest coral barrier reef system in the world and just down there Cuba...lively, bright and hot South Florida." Lee Brock
Jali Collection: "I have named this collection after the architectural element jali that was developed to provide ventilation, light and temperature control in harsh desert climates - often beautifully decorated. Jali are also used to screen off women who must live in "purdah", the practice among certain Muslim and Hindu societies of keeping women sequestered, apart from public spaces in buildings. Jali – secrets, veils...beautiful, perplexing..." Lee Brock
New York Collection: "I lived in NYC for most of the 1980's, worked in hotel and restaurant kitchens, making art at home. The city is indelibly etched in my memory - the angular rhythm of the buildings and the subway...the jazz that was born there - Monk...the art - Pollack...the food - Gray's Papaya...a herd of Yellow Taxis - run!...the rivers, the museums, the Village Voice..." Lee Brock
GRAPHIC DESIGN SERVICE
As an independent designer I provide individualized personal attention to my client's projects.
Over the years I have developed a system that works to bring out the best of my client's ideas.
Logo Design and Branding - Product labeling - Signage - Business Cards - Advertising - Layout Design - Catalogs - Programs - Brochures - Rack Cards - Branding Style Guides for Clients
Digital Advertising - Website Template Customization - Email Campaigns - Photoshop Retouching and Mock-ups
Samples available upon request.
By Susan Rand Brown
Banner Correspondent/Provincetown Banner Aug. 7, 2014
“I like to work real fast,” says painter and graphic designer Lee Brock, in the gallery where she assists owner Patty DeLuca and shows her own art. “This new series,” she continues, standing next to a four-paneled grid, each blue-toned, layered painting highlighting abstractly rendered objects, from a pendulum to beautifully mounted fossil seen through windows in Parisian design boutiques, “is done in waterbased mediums, inks and acrylics. It dries faster than oils so I can work through more spontaneously and still get that painterly effect.” Interning a few summers ago at the Provincetown Art Association & Museum as the capstone of a graphic design degree at Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, Brock also gallery-sat to engage museum visitors in conversation about Robert Motherwell’s abstract paintings — out of love for the art, of course, but also to teach herself how best to describe the kind of expressionist artwork she began doing in her teens...
Traditionally schooled in the U.S. and in Europe, including teen years spent in Madrid when her art-loving family moved from the U.S. to Spain, Brock’s truest education has happened through intuition, circumstance and apprenticeship. An early stop in her journey was the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, where beat poets like Michael McClure were teaching classes. Next was an art program in Austin, Texas. Buddies were hanging out at the well-known Café Les Amis, and soon Brock was cooking there, drawing posters for the local music scene, illustrating small edition books and showing her own artwork.
In Austin, she met women with Provincetown ties, and in 1978 spent her first summer in town; at Gabriel’s Guesthouse a year later, she and others opened The Local Artist’s Gallery. “The only criteria was that an artist live within 50 miles of the gallery,” she explains, spontaneously drawing a circle in the air. She also met Sue Harrison, writer, blogger and silversmith, and now her life partner. (Harrison is the former arts and entertainment editor for this newspaper.) When she and Brock met, Harrison owned Half Bay Moon Leather; and soon Brock was learning the art of leather cutting. “Then I followed my dreams to go to New York and become known as an artist,” she says, smiling at the memory of her youthful self, “and instead went to culinary school.” Culinary school for her meant a formal education in French cuisine; before long she was whipping up Escoffier sauces at the four-star Pierre Hotel, making, Brock says, edible art in the kitchen, and her own paintings at home. “I kept trying to go off and find the next exciting thing, and the Pierre kept calling me back.” About 13 years ago Brock again heeded the siren call of Provincetown, and soon was able to return to making art, becoming increasingly visible as a graphic designer with clients including the Provincetown Art Association & Museum and the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival, and as a visual artist with a vibrant palette and identifiable sense of style. Mostly recently she has studied monoprint and silkscreen with master printmaker Vicky Tomayko, experimenting with techniques that increase her fluency in both fine arts and client based design.
Her ode to Provincetown, “Five Lobsters, One Claw,” hanging in the upper level of the DeLuca Gallery when this reporter visited, is essential Brock: a study in reds, blues and yellows with swirls of black ink, its dancelike brush-strokes and bright colors expressing a sense of gratitude for life’s spontaneous twists and turns.
By Frank Polanco
for Living in Oakland Park
May 31, 2022
Designer and artist Gloria Sollecito interviewed me for her blog on her ARTFUL KITCHENS company website: