lee shiney exhibit to open at watermark
Posted on 25. Jul, 2010 by molly in muse
words > WATERMARK BOOKS
“Horizon,” an art exhibit of works by Lee Shiney will be on display from July 30th through September 21st at Watermark Books & Café, 4701 E. Douglas. Two Final Friday receptions will be held for the show: Friday, July 30th from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., and again on August 27th from 6:00—8:00 p.m. KMUW and Freddy’s Frozen Custard will be filling KMUW mugs with frozen custard at the July reception.
Regarding this “Horizon” exhibit, Shiney explains: “My tiny little real world as a seventh grader was one of attending the largest junior highs in Kansas, complete with a genuine art class. Left to go down that road, life might have turned out OK, but the next year my parents moved us 30 miles away to a town of 400 to escape the big city.” Whatever Shiney lost with zero exposure to art classes he gained by driving tractors and combines, among other things. “This was in an era where air conditioned tractor cabs were absolutely a luxury, and sometimes things really got fixed with baling wire, a supply that in those days was actually used for baling hay, and was made of real wire.”
Growing up in the country, Shiney came to appreciate seeing the line of demarcation between earth and sky. “Exposure to that line, usually long and flat and invisible for the most part to a city boy, was planting the seeds of romance for the big-sky view. It was an appreciation that was strengthened further as I went on to live much of my life in south-central rural Kansas.”
Shiney explains that that basic line element found its way into some of his paintings from the late 1980’s, but then he lost track of it. “Now, as I find myself looking deeper inside for inspiration (i.e. everything I need is in my history and in my head) I finally am revisiting ‘the line,’ and continuing on the path of using tools and machines in the creation process. I hesitate to define it too rigidly, but you know, there’s a peacefulness lurking there somewhere. And, I like to think that things pretty much turned out OK, anyway.”
He has been largely self-taught and self-employed for decades. He makes artwork full-time, and fully expects to continue the “experimenting, making mistakes, and learning” cycle, until the cows come home. He can be followed at www.leeshiney.com.
