"Circle, One" Cosmic Round Elements (los elementos) (05.2018) i ching Circle of Life/Seasons Print

Lee Spence (b:1989) Digital Designer/Painter. Born and raised in Plymouth, England, my work explores themes of travel, space and abstraction. I've often grappled with ideas of balance and harmony both on the canvas and in my daily life. When I was 21 years old I left my family home to backpack through France and Italy with my best-friend, discovering new locations by hitchhiking and trekking across countrysides and coast lines. This time in my life inevitably features in fragments throughout my recent series of work (OVRLPS) showing up in various colour pallets and shapes. Parts of them remind me of that time. I’m really always just trying to create a mood. A mood that’s live-within-able, if you know what I mean? Like a visual aid to help you enter a mood and stay in it. Just as music does through the ears. I so often find that moods from an inspiring trip I've been on end up making their way into the designs. Back then we settled for a while in the South of France working with an English speaking theatre company set painting and designing posters. The colours of the Mediterranean were something entirely new to me and I started using them in everything I did. My journey led me to Paris in 2013 where I stayed at a hostel in Montmartre, absorbing the streets and small bars experienced by many of the great abstract painters years before. I envisioned myself staying there and spending my time painting in a small city loft. I had applied to the Cité Internationale des Arts but was unsuccessful getting in. One night I had new roommates in my hostel dormitory - Americans, one of which would become my wife and together we'd travel more and eventually move to the United States where we've been living ever since; exploring different states to find which fits us best. California has a special feel about it and the light here is great - there's a lot of outdoor availability which keeps things spacious and fresh so for now it's become home. The OVRLPS project I think speaks to this searching for "home" and learning to find it right where you are. The only things that remain are where our interactions with others overlap, the space that's filled with meaningful memories. I'm interested in attempting to visualize this idea. The prints I'm creating try to show this in a way that you can tap right into by just standing and looking at it, my hope is that you feel some sense of adventure from engaging with the array of complex lines, structures, layers and textures.