ARTIST ANDREW LAKEY RETURNS TO THE STUDIO TO PURSUE “SILHOUETTES & SHADOWS”

LOS ANGELES, November 18, 2004 / PR Newswire
Outsider Artist Rebounds From Serious Illness – Painting Again On A Limited Basis With New Found Passion – And Doctors Watching Carefully

Artist Andrew Lakey, who emerged from art world obscurity in 1990 to become a prolific painter, has returned to the studio after a health-related hiatus to continue work on his latest – “Silhouettes & Shadows.”

Lakey, who is best known for creating 2,000 Angel paintings, has also produced an additional 10,000 original paintings, drawings and works in other media in a ten year span during the 1990s. Ironically, his passion for painting and his prodigious output nearly killed him. By 2000 his doctors insisted he stop painting. It wasn't until 4 years later, 3 major surgeries and the use of the experimental drug Xolair® that Lakey reached a point of recovery.

“Silhouettes & Shadows” is an exciting evolution of the artist’s work. These dramatic new paintings begin with the simple outline of a person’s body part – particularly hands, feet and heads that becomes the focus of an explosion of color and design - a visual language that appears to be tapped into the inner mind or the outer reaches of space.

Lakey began the “Body Parts Project” in 1995 when he started recording encounters with personalities such as producer David Wolper, actor Kelsey Grammer and singer Ray Charles. Andy was meeting all kinds of interesting people and over time he began to do tracings as a process of documenting people’s personal information in his own unique way. This process of tracing their body part on a blank sheet of paper became the genesis of a new phase of work and the results have been unusually powerful.

“Silhouettes & Shadows” is the convergence of unique painting techniques, a mastery of line, color and form and a surface style that can only be described as Lakey-esque. These paintings can be seen online at the microsite silhouettesandshadows.com and at the gallery site, cvagallery.com.