Artist Feature: Lee Price
"...fraught relationship between women and food."
Lisa in Tub With Chocolate Cake painted by Lee Price was the first painting of hers that I had the pleasure of indulging in. My initial emotional response was an overwhelming sense of guilt, like I had been caught in some sort of compulsive behavior that I couldn’t control, as if I was the thick woman in the tub devouring the forbidden chocolate cake. Once I sat with the piece for a moment I soon felt a sensation of solitude and peace. The bath was still warm, I was safe in my own private space and the cake comforted my soul.
When I was much younger I felt different from most of my friends, I didn’t seem to struggle with body issues as much as they did. As my tits were just beginning to form, a friend was having hers surgically reduced. Another girlfriend and I would make huge feasts like we were expecting an entire city block to join us, but it was just us and this was for her. Once our bellies were stuffed, I would sit patiently outside the bathroom door waiting for her to finish throwing it all back up. There was nothing I could do to fix her, I tried. So I accepted her, eating disorders and all. The fat friends, the skinny friends, the flat friends, the black friends. I could go on and on.
The binging that happens in the paintings of Price spark these memories. Memories of the body and the issues that come alongside it all. Now I am 37 years old and I struggle with body issues. The media took longer to get a hold of my reflection but it did. Now it spits it back at me every time I dress and undress.
In addition to the miraculous talent in the photorealistic scenes painted by Price, her subject matter and placement couldn’t be more perfect to me. An aerial view to get a good long look at ones self. The setting, always private and somehow comforting. Binging in solitude. “I use food as a metaphor for the ways we distract ourselves from being present. Much of my work looks at compulsivity. The frenetic activity of the figures in my pieces contrasts with the placidness of their surroundings. There is an absurdity to the repetition of this act of compulsion. At the same time it is an attempt to find real nourishment. The women in my paintings are seeking a place of solace. They are looking for a reacquaintance with joy. They are searching for the lusciousness of life.”
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Lee Price was born in Elmira, New York and studied at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. Since she started painting, she has been focused on the often fraught relationship between women and food. Exploring food’s role as a liberator, crutch, drug and nourishment. She currently lives in Beacon, NY and is represented by Evoke Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico.