Lee Balan

ARTIST STATEMENT

I put myself in a mental hospital when I was nineteen. I suffered from anxiety and depression. As I grew up I learned to control my symptoms through art and writing. I began to accept myself. I've always identified with people who face extreme difficulties. My inspiration comes from the simple act of living from day to day. My art is a way to discover answers to questions about consciousness and life: How do people survive? How do we flourish in a life cut short by death? Currently I use Digital art to discover the answers I seek. The digital medium helps me see the world through a different lens. Each image I create is a fragment of a larger whole.

In the Twenty-First Century there is a clamoring for new art. Science and technology are dramatically changing life on Earth. New discoveries and inventions are altering every aspect of life. We are all influenced by recent changes. We are living at the dawn of the Singularity (the period when Artificial Intelligence becomes the pervasive and dominant influence in society). How do we adapt? People are looking for answers. People are looking for a vision that can alleviate the anxieties of the Twenty-First Century. Art has always given purpose to life. Art explains the present and future. New art-forms expose the unknown. As an artist I have always attempted to venture into unknown territory. Presently I work with digital art as a contemporary form of expression. Earlier in my career I concentrated on Assemblage and acrylic painting. Moving forward I plan to develop installations that incorporate all forms of art and found-art built around the theme of Mortality. My art is a visual template for concerns about existence, origins, and death.