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Allen Lavee

I have had a lifelong interest and connection with the practice of all types of visual art. Both of my parents are artists, and as a child I frequently accompanied my mother to her life drawing group. I enjoy creating both two-dimensional (drawing, painting, photography, printmaking) and three-dimensional works. I love the immediacy of both watercolor as well as welded sculpture. Creations in both of these media can be "finished" in one session, and do not necessarily require (or even take kindly to) reworking. My fascination with welding has been life-long. It is an immediately gratifying process quickly yielding something permanent yet changeable. There is no glue to set, clay to fire, paint to dry...taking seconds to cool, a metal weld is as strong as it will ever be almost instantly. Changes are equally rapid, as the tools for cutting metal work as quickly as those for its joining.

The ink, pencil, and watercolor nudes are created while viewing a live model, and I rarely revise them once the pose has ended. I am especially interested in conveying the energy of the model's pose, as well as placing her in the context of her environment. Negative spaces are as important as the obvious subject. I am inspired by the interplay of foreground and background, light and dark, line and shape.