stuff from ellen's head: lee littlefield

Showing posts with label lee littlefield. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

the Mimi decapitated

I woke up Friday morning to let the dog out and looked up to see the flower head of The Mimi had fallen off. Again. It's been just a little over two years since we got it back after being repaired the last time. Which was the second time we had it repaired. The first time we had it repaired, I had gone outside to see the whole thing laying on the ground, broken off at ground level, the spidery fingers of the flower scattered all over. This was when it was still at the city house.

This was not my favorite of Lee's outdoor sculptures but at the time I bought it about 10 years ago, he had only three or four in the show and while there was another one I liked a little better, mostly because of the colors, I decided on this one because it seemed a little more unique. I guess I know why, now, he didn't do more like this one. I don't know if it is a bad design (the head is actually very light) or if the material he built it from was already too far gone (the wood at the break is very soft and spongy), but regardless, the Mimi is headless again.

We haven't taken down the stalk yet, no where to put it except over at the shop, and I'm sure that 28 hours of rain we got starting Saturday hasn't done it any good with the raw wood being exposed. In retrospect, I guess I should have covered the broken end with a plastic bag.

We're thinking of ways we might try to fix it, Lee certainly can't since he died shortly after repairing it this last time, but anything we could do won't make it look pristine. If all else fails, I'll figure out a way to mount the flower head somewhere in the garden.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

the Lee Littlefield comes home

You might remember the post I did several weeks ago about the passing of one of our local artists, Lee Littlefield. We bought one of his outdoor installations 7 years ago and at the time of the post, it was in for repairs.

Unfortunately, Lee's outdoor work is not permanent being made out of natural materials. Even though they are sealed and painted, the rain and the heat eventually get to them and they need repair.

When Lee called to tell us that it was repaired and ready to be delivered, we were in the middle of the mountain wall and were still undecided about where we wanted to put it out here at the country house so we put him off for a few months.

And then he died.

With the help of his gallery representative who facilitated the return of our sculpture, it was delivered and installed yesterday by another local artist who has helped Lee and worked with him in the past.

The pictures just don't do it justice.

Friday, June 14, 2013

RIP Lee

One of our local artists, Lee Littlefield, died of lymphoma in his home last Sunday.

I first became aware of Lee's work when three school bus yellow sculptures appeared overnight in a small triangular esplanade along one of my main travel arteries many many years ago. They were about 5' tall and constructed from what looked like sections of telephone poles with long wiggly sticks coming out of the top portions and painted bright yellow. They looked like upright porcupines, at least that's how my brain made sense of them.

Later, I started seeing similar sculptures springing up along the freeways in the city. They would stay for some months and then be gone to pop up elsewhere or new ones would take their places. These were tall, more slender, using trees and branches instead of telephone poles. It was several years before I learned the name of the artist and that he called these Pop Up sculptures. Sometimes he would have permission from the authorities and perhaps, sometimes not.

I began to look for them because they were always a delight. Eventually, we purchased one of Lee's outdoor pieces being exhibited at a local gallery. He had some wonderfull indoor wall pieces which I would have liked but our house was small and we had no wall space for such. Plus, it was his outdoor work that first grabbed my attention.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of our sculpture because I can't find the old ones I took on any of the devices here and I can't take a new one because it is in Lee's studio. It suffered some damage and was in for repairs. Unfortunately, he died before he could install it for us out here. It's ready and we will make arrangements to get it. I'll post pictures then.

I'm not going to go into Lee's resume and biography. If you want to know all that you can read about him here. Instead, here is a small gallery of some of his work.