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.

Luckily for my viewers I have found a bit more joy to display in my work over the last few years. My digital work lead the way for me to visually calm my work and make it more approachable. I make my digital images in a simpler way using color, shapes and patterns while continuing to lean into my gestural habits. A gallery owner once said to me these images were like emoji – I’ll take that. I call them my postcards, still full of concern, history, social input and emotions just like all of my work but easier to consume, atomic-age clean, mechanical and bright, familiar like commercial art.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a prolific visual artist, calling both Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, my creative homes. With a studio in each location, I navigate the dynamic interplay between traditional techniques and contemporary digital methods, seamlessly blending fine arts with client-based design.

My artistic roots trace back to my early exposure to diverse cultures and art during my early 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.

For fine art collectors I has a dynamic range of works on paper, canvas and metal. Of interest to the interior design and decorating industry my 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.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

NFTs are reprehensible both socially and environmentally. I will never engage in them. Art should be used to create a living community that nurtures the artists and society around them. I do not see NFTs doing this.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Our educational systems need to have full funding for the arts. Learning in the arts is more than a career seeking opportunity, it is has an important humanizing effect on society and the creators. Art education is needed to teach cultural acceptance and expansion. Art exploration must be available to all levels of education as a personal growth factor not just for a career.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leebrock-art.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lee.brock.artist/#
• Other: https://vimeo.com/leebrockdesign/collectionshttps://www.pictorem.com/profile/Lee.Brock.Art.and.Graphic.Designs