Not ordered or commanded. Not invited or asked. Spontaneous. Unwanted, unwelcome, unforced, unprompted. Unwilling. Free. Voluntary. Unbidden. Trespasser, stalker, prey, protagonist. I use the same infrared gadgetry used by hunters. When the animals know me, I wield the camera handheld and shoot blindly, without the aid of crosshairs, a proprioceptive choreography in the dark. With wild animals, I keep my distance. I learn only what they choose to announce. They’ve grown familiar with the camera. Privacy. Incursions. There is no informed consent. Woman with a camera. Hunter with a gun. Something is taken. I spend time among the trees for the peace and quiet. My blunter senses build me a bubble. The animals around me hold their breath. However benign, I impinge. I don’t know the half … [Read more...]
Constant Abrasive Irritation Produces the Pearl: a Disease of the Oyster
I’m pleased to join an excellent group of artists in a show of videos and other works curated by John Otte and installed at The Pearl (“Hypnotic. Laid back. Keeping me up past my bedtime. Again.”**), a unique creation of Jay Poggi’s. A satellite exhibition of New Orleans’ biennial Prospect.2, the show will be open Saturday and Sunday evenings through January 29, 2012. 639 Desire Street. New Orleans **hoping to make my FB update their new motto! Full press release quoted below: “The Pearl is proud to present "Constant Abrasive Irritation Produces The Pearl: A Disease Of The Oyster," a group exhibition, curated and installed by John Otte, and set within the confines of an extraordinary historic house/compound in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans. Here, Otte assembles a wide … [Read more...]
Ground Floor opens in Atlanta
After all that time in the salt mines, it feels amazing to make it up to the Ground Floor. Heady times! I’m blinking like a mole. Bright lights, big city. Many thanks to Dashboard Co-op for making me [feel like] a star. Seriously, they made these gorgeous sidewalk glitter stars for each venue. Deep purple bathed in the golden glow of sodium halogen street lights... Eight artists, five buildings. Nikita Gale and I are at 427 Edgewood Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia. Come for a stroll. … [Read more...]
My Interview with Dashboard Co-op
See my online artist portfolio and interview at http://dashboardco-op.org/live/portfolio/475/ or keep reading below for the unexpurgated version. Craig Cameron of Dashboard Co-op draws me out of my shell: How has your educational experience altered or enhanced how you approach and develop your work, ideas, and concepts? In college, my intro painting professor took us to the country. The fall foliage was ablaze. We’d been painting for a few weeks using only white, black, and his patented “paper bag” brown so we were salivating at the autumn colors. He gave us and our quivering, reverent imaginations a few minutes to soak in the beauty before telling us to turn around and choose among the rocks and crags behind us in the dim shady glen. This would be our rock and the only thing we’d … [Read more...]
Why, yes, Deigaard does alphabetize nicely between, um, Degas and de Kooning? Holy alphabet soup.
I am thrilled to have my work included in a new drawing textbook by Wayne Enstice and Melody Peters. The book looks excellent and very useful. I hope you’ll forgive the enormous kick I’m getting from my index listing smack dab between Degas and de Kooning. My hope is to spawn a modest klatsch of student acolytes who will discover, perhaps at my posthumous garage sale, that they make up a quorum for some Aussie rules football or badminton. After the spirited playing of which they will go for a stroll among trees and ponder lofty thoughts about the endless reckonings to be had with paper and a pencil. Then they will go home and draw. Then draw some more. And they will encourage others both youngster and oldster. This is my beautiful dream. I’m going to study this textbook, see what I … [Read more...]
remembering Katrina: VESTIGES/ trinitas
A lot of my memory is cued by physical objects. Looking at the surfaces of my artwork, I see everything I thought and felt in the making of them. One sculpture I lost in my ruined studio took me years to make. We had criss-crossed the country four times together. A nine foot tall elephant-woman, she was the physical embodiment of much of my personal history. I grieved for her loss nearly as if she had lived. After Katrina, piles of broken trees grew forty feet high and many city blocks long. All over New Orleans, there were holes in the sky where trees had been. My drawings of these trees became like post-mortems. Many trees survived though, and they teach me to take the long view. In the immediate years after Katrina, the effects of stress lingered; we bemoaned our foggy brains. … [Read more...]
Animals, People- A Shared Environment
My nocturnal photographs, Jane and Isn’t It Pretty to Think So are in a group show at the Queensland College of Art, July 3-23, 2011. I am also included in an online gallery: http://www.aasg.org.au/gallery/lee-deigaard Information about the excellent Australian Animal Studies Group is at: http://www.aasg.org.au/ … [Read more...]
Love, The Front
Old and new, borrowed and blue, in a group show uniting past, current, and new members, The Front puts Love to the test. Do you love us? We love you! THE FRONT 4100 St Claude Ave New Orleans, LA JUNE 11-JULY 3, 2011 It’s June, and what with all the love spores wafting about, there should be a fog of love advisory. Fresh and humid, straight from the incubator, The Ark (Two x Two) considers my immediate family-man/woman/dog/cat/dog/dog/horse- and how when the wind and waters rise, the pair bond in all its bestial combinations keeps us afloat. Featuring: Kyle Bravo Lee Deigaard Rachel DeTrinis Andrea Ferguson Dave Greber Rachel Jones Morgana King Jenny LeBlanc Jennifer Odem Stephanie Patton Brooke Pickett Julie Pieri Alex Podesta Claire Rau Jeff Rinehart Megan … [Read more...]
Lee’s Bad Art for the “Good Art Guide”
How do you make good art? Navel gazing, relentless self-criticism, a flame thrower, daily discipline mixed with extreme impulsivity? I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, here are my contributions to The Good Art Guide by members of the Front, as part of our collaborative exhibition Drop City with Team Lump (Raleigh, NC), June 2011. … [Read more...]
Drop City Team Lump vs The Front
collaborative installation by members of The Front@ Lump Gallery, Raleigh, NC June 3-25, 2011 Our deconstructed geodesic dome required lots of triangles made by each of us. In mine, my ink drawings of trees meet my nocturnal portraits of the animals who live among them. Composing in triangles is not actually all that easy. What complicates the process? A cat. Click HERE to see some of my triangles, experiments all. Kyle Bravo, Jenny LeBlanc, Jonathan Traviesa, Claire Rau, and Dave Greber created our installation on site in Raleigh. Dave Greber directed, produced, and edited our collaborative video. Our description of the show: The Front's installation is inspired by the Drop City artist commune and the geodesic domes they built on their parcel of land to function as both their … [Read more...]