Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

    Windows 12 , 24x36 digital print on archival matte paper in 26x38 thin black frame. Compilation of all 12 Windows on the east elevation of the Oak Park Public Library, from the Chromatic Windows project.  The color series of 6, beginning with light blue and ending in black, repeats across all 12, as a metaphor for the chromatic scale in music. The series of 6 as a musical metaphor is a whole tone scale, which is a scale comprised of whole tones (1 step). $500 (Other sizes available) Inquire

Very often when I'm taking photographs of architecture I take note of the interstitial space between buildings (or sculptures), and how they frame the sky to the edges of the photograph.   In 2015, I experimented by cutting the shapes on a laser cutter with translucent blue Plexiglas. The next phase of the project will involve mounting them within frames. In certain ways, they are an homage to Joseph Cornell’s cut paper silhouettes as in “Varietes de Mineralogie”  or the silhouettes in the Ledger Book of William Bache . In terms of human universals they are a "classification of space"  *** Prototypes with 4 blue LEDs powered by 2 AA batteries. Since they draw so little power, they can stay lit for months, although they progressively fade, which is an interesting "happy accident". A "sunset" frame would be interesting.    VIEW MORE IMAGES Also see Architectural Deconstruction If you would like to follow this project, please subscribe to my Mailing Lis...

Recent iterations: System of a Sound at Australian National University, where weather data is correlated music moods.   *** Weather Music While sitting on the porch, listening to the wind chimes, I wondered if there was a way I could make music by correlating changes in wind speed with certain musical elements via MIDI. For example, when wind speed increases, tempo increases; or when wind speed increases, volume increases. There would be many possibilities because you could correlate any meteorological event with any musical event. A program could be written whereby you could compose different sets of rules and the music would be automatically generated according to those rules. You could save them as presets, such as "sunny and warm" or "bitter cold and windy" or "storm approaching". Using a portable weather monitoring unit, weather data could be collected and fed into the music real time. If there is a way to radio transmit the data, it ...

16.25 x 22.25, acrylic on paper $300 A study for another work in my text-art series, now appropriated as an homage to the sometimes droll conceptual work of the late John Baldessari. I am using the following color classification, loosely based on the sequences of color in the color spectrum: A: Red C: Red D: Orange E: Orange F: Yellow H: Yellow L: Green O: Green R: Blue S: Blue T: Blue W: White In terms of generativity, you could work with the hash value of the string "Words Face The Wall" (DC28A134DEFC289CA6B01B3ACA6D162D). The unique values in the string are: 0 1 2 3 4 6 8 9 A B C D E F ...on which various attributes can be assigned, such as color, material, etc, and it need not be text-based. This is the process I used in my Hash Art series. This is no different from using scales or other rules or rudiments in music, and a good example of borrowing a system from another domain as a metaphorical framework. Initially, the work was inspi...

"Windows" is used as a double-metaphor, referencing the basic 16 colors in the Windows 3.1 operating system, and various window styles, and how they were used as inspiration by artists in the past. In 1949, minimalist artist Ellsworth Kelly created a piece based on the windows in the Museum of Modern Art Paris . Here I am using it as a compositional element and wrapping the 16 colors in a repeating series across the panels. Installation details : Ideally in a large well-lit lobby area with east, south, or west sun exposure for solar panel power generation. as well as a luminous stained-glass effect. Medium : Sculpture, Installation, Light-Box “Column” or “Lantern” Dimensions : TBD, Various Materials : Stainless steel, aluminum, hard plastic or painted or stained wood for the window frames. Windows are acrylic with color appliques affixed to the inside. Columns rest on a concrete slab. On the inside of the column is a pod of LEDs, powered by solar panels mounted on t...

Alliterative Haiku Cover Comps in black, white and red versions The idea for this book arose directly from the character limit constraints of Twitter in early 2015, when I began posting them under the #sixwords hashtag. They are not haiku per se, but use similar rules, in this case, three-word pairs in alphabetic order. Print Edition now available on Amazon . Rules: 1. All lower case 2. Re-use of words and couplets allowed 3. Overlap in alphabet allowed, e.g. yza, zab 4. Ampersands and hyphens allowed 5. Sound-alike consonants allowed, e.g. "fine photography", and their spoonerisms "phine fotography" 6. Merged words are allowed, and can be formated per the following: northkorea, NorthKorea *** Color System under the Black White and Red series of works: I have systematized the font colors and page borders to correspond with ranges of letters as follows: #2015 #classificati...

As both pun and self-reference, a possible photo collage across the window panel facets (faces) at the Spertus Museum in Chicago. Images would be printed on pressure sensitive adhesive vinyl. #2013 #angles

   In a continuum of luminance from complete darkness to pure white, the first logical color frequencies are red and orange hues, and I am applying them in various transfer modes over a low-contrast, desaturated base image. I'm interested in the visual perceptual biases with respect to color preferences and choices. The logical answer to the question "After white black and gray, what would be the next logical color?" I am presuming that the answer would be a unanimous--red. This has cultural implications as well, with a wide range of affordances to the appearance of red, and what it may connote, e.g. life and death (when mixed with black) and love/affection (pink) when mixed with white, political ideology/repression, and so on. View all artworks in the Black White and Red series Other designs in BWR ("Arty Apparel") BWR in Car Colors In aerial views of parking lots one typically sees car colors that are some shade of black, shades of gray, silvers,...

 Results (Google Search Art) (2012)   As neural networks become smarter, so will image search results. When I began the project in 2012, image search results weren't that smart: images that appeared in Results were associated with the subject matter only to the degree that they were in the source web page. Since that point, search has become more sophisticated, whereby a keyword wouldn't necessarily need to be in the text in order for it to appear in the Results. For example, it could have a notion of what constitutes "beauty".  Almost 10 years later, artists are using AI to generate things like "Averaged Faces" and grouping them in grids. *** System latency causes color placeholder images to appear in Google search results, extracted from common pixel information in the images. It is interesting from a conceptual standpoint, as the search terms produce a color range as a result: Algorithms abide by Universals as well.

Alpha States (2011) Inversions of intentional over-exposures.

Interval Cubes Acrylic on panels P.O.R.    Inquire Download symbol (block) grid. (Adobe Illustrator) 12 cubes (6x6x2) for each interval in the chromatic scale using only black, white and red. Can be displayed on a shelf, or hung on a wall. Each cube is currently prepared for shelf display with felt on the back edges to prevent cubes from scraping. The cubes can also be tiled together in different ways like building blocks to teach chords and intervals. A very unique work done in the style of Josef Albers or Alexander Calder. Work is fully documented on its own website for information and archival purposes. Cube 1. Unison Cube 2. Minor Second Cube 3. Major Second Cube 4. Minor Third Cube 5. Major Third Cube 6. Perfect Fourth Cube 7. Diminished Fifth Cube 8. Perfect Fifth Cube 9. Minor Sixth Cube 10. Major Sixth Cube 11. Minor Seventh Cube 12. Major Seventh A symbol grid in Adobe Illustrator [Download .ai file] Drag symbols (blocks) and rearrange/rota...

Driptych (Diptych) (2015) 11 x 14 gouache on paper $300 for the pair View as diptych and triptych

Knockoffs (2017) 22"x14" acrylic on panel, photo print (two joined panels) A "knockoff" or pun of my own work placed in two existing series: "Driptych" and the Black-White-Red series. The dripped paint object on the right panel was photographed, inverted, and placed on the left. The red area was meant to place it in the BWR series. $450 or best offer

Green Channel (Study) (2016) 11" x 14" x 1", acrylic, hardware and stencil on canvas board mounted on panel. (cadmium red over sap green) $100 Assemblage with a slight reference to the Stroop Effect, employing a green "R". The slight variation between a dark green and black is not noticeable in low light, or in the photograph, but is evident only in certain light temperatures. This is a study in two ways: how green interacts with red as a dichotomy, and how physical artworks done with paint, are distinct from back-lit digital art, have a different color space and affect the eye differently. Red is a very hot color in the digital realm (even if a "cool" low-frequency color), and works as well in paint, but very dark greens appear black against reds and oranges, similar to the blackening effect of a red-orange sunset on foreground foliage as the light dims. The same dichotomy exists between a solar panel and solar mirror, one absorbing and the othe...

Interesting Pages 11"x14" acrylic and graphite on panel An abstraction (or alternately a literal representation) of post-it flags, symbolic of the information that was flagged. Aesthetically I liked the transparency effect of the overlapping cellophane, and ultimately looked almost De Stijl. $200 (Price is for the pair. Will not sell as separate pieces as the diptych is central to the concept.) #2016 #colorful #geometric #fun #metaphors #layered

Cloud 17 (Just the Clouds in 17th-Century Dutch Painting) Conceptual/Multi-Media/Photography 12"x72" Habotai (China Silk)  (Edition of 1) Blockchain: https://opensea.io/assets/0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e/65481996295672763069708977931626981535906173317863536864357634663236130308097 As a part of the "Just" Series, Cloud 17 is a photo collage of just cloud elements from 17th Century Dutch painting, printed from a digital file in the Cloud on 12"x72" Habotai (China Silk) Some of the artists: Jan Both, Meindert Hobbema, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan van de Cappelle, Jan van Goyen. The primary conceptual element of the work is that the pristine original resides in the Cloud (image is currently on a Google server), and that it can be worn as a garment with attributes that exist on the internet as a digital object. The current digital fingerprint is: b5b19bf6269c811b850c6dc78e822b7f55fbae66306d5b9ce313fe44503e2ae3 Another variant in ...

An exploration in musical symmetry. C | C# | D | Eb | E | F | F# | G | G# | A | A# | B Prints available for any or all pitches   As vector art, prints are available at any size and in any color sequence. I am using a 6-color sequence as 5x7 digital prints in this version, but any sequence greater than 3 can work, although it will affect how the sequence iterates through the shape sequence. *** Just like they've done with Mondrian, the art is now emblazoned on cups/mugs: Chromatic Cups You can purchase the entire set of 12 or any intervals that you like. For example, you can purchase a set of four based on an E7 chord, E, G#, B, D (include the G if you want E7(#9). At the moment, enharmonic equivalents aren’t available. For example, only C# is not available as Db. Let me know if you would like equivalents and I will make them for Eb, Gb, Ab and Bb. I recommend the diminished and augmented sets because the intervals are all major or all minor, and you will need only 5. (...

LVOLUTION (2015) 11x14 inches fused acrylic on acrylic in black matte in 16x20 white frame The evolution of an "L" shape. The red L cut from the left panel "evolves" into a white L and resides on top of the adjoining red piece, leaving the viewer a sense of ambiguity of the source of the white L. The red L is missing or has evolved into white. $500 or best offer #geometric #minimalism #red #angles

Cloud Clouds (The Treachery of Images) (2014) Digital Inspired by the Magritte painting "The Treachery of Images" (inscribed with the phrase "Ce n'est pas une pipe") was one the first attempts to express the distinction between images and reality. Here, I'm interested in the idea of the augmented reality that we more frequently choose to experience through our smartphones: The numinous quality of clouds, reduced to execrable ("treacherous") QR codes used to see images of clouds in the network Cloud. The objects on the wall serve as reminder to experience the world without digital prostheses. After scanning the codes, one knows what images are inferred and the meaning they convey, which renders them temporary placeholders of images and the reality they represent. The experience of art placed on the wall is a way to connect the art experience with reality, such that when you see interesting clouds, it reminds you to notice them more and p...

USED (2015) 16.25" x 12" acrylic on stencil, acrylic on canvas, paintbrush A self-referential post neo-dada conceptual piece incorporating its tools. $100 #textart