Lee Price

            Lee Price creates hyper-realistic portraits surrounded by food. Some of these are even self-portraits. What’s interesting is the aerial point of view that she paints them from. These oil paintings seem intimate but can also invoke feelings of disgust.

In most of my paintings, what I want to get across is a sense of distraction. How we grasp for things that distract us from being present when the present is too uncomfortable for us to sit with. How this "checking out" (or compulsion) often creates more harm than if we had just sat with the discomfort in the first place.

            Price also wanted to explore issues between women and food. Society teaches women to hide their appetites, thus showing the consumption in a private moment (which can also relate to other aspects of life). These paintings remove the censor to hunger.

            She grew up surrounded by artistic influence. Her mother was a high school art teacher and she has always been involved in painting. She went to school in Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts.

            I find her paintings beautiful and yet grotesque. The bird’s eye view forces the viewer to look down upon the surroundings and face what’s really in front of us. It allows us to watch our actions.