As mentioned previously, our home has sold, we are packing and I am releasing a few of the works of art for sale which were specifically created for this home.  Pictured here are a few of them.


The painting shown above, Desert, is approximately 8' x 4', has heavy application and multiple layers of paint and raffia, with scoring through the layers.  It was inspired by the desert sand and sky.


The painting shown below, Flight, is 48"x30", layers of paint, raffia and date palm fiber.

Portal II, shown below, is 48"x30", layers of paint and date palm fiber.

Portal III, shown below,  is 30"x12". 

Portal IV, 36"x25", has heavy application of paint, scoring through to under color and date palm fiber.

The general theme in these paintings is one dealing with texture, line, movement and color. The use of the date palm fabric gives the works a three dimensional quality.

Date Palm fiber is the material that grows between the trunk of the palm and the frond.  From a distance it looks like a woven fabric, burlap in texture, however it is composed of fibers running various directions, one on top of another.  After I remove it from the tree, I wash  the material then apply it to the canvas in various configurations.

Please contact me for further information regarding these paintings.  pamelahuntlee@gmail.com

Hearts Made of Stone

These four small canvases hang together to make up the work:  Hearts Made of Stone, inspired by the White Tank Granite boulders seen in Joshua Tree National Park, some of them soaring 100' into the air in eerie shapes and groupings.  My thought was to create my own unusual shapes in stone, shapes that you would not normally see in stone, and I was having fun with the word play as well.

 A little information about Whate Tank Granite:  It is an igneous rock which formed when hot magma or liquid rock was pushed up from deep within the Earth and forced into the overlying rock in a process known as intrusion. It then cooled and hardened and later became exposed as the rock we see today. Geologists believe that the White Tank Granite was intruded into the overlying rock about 135-155 million years ago.

The final four canvases.....men violate and abuse children.

Life Within A Fairy Tale

January 2005 reporting would not have been complete without stories about Michael Jackson and his alleged molestation of young boys.  This canvas carries clippings from those stories including reference to 1993 when Jackson was investigated by two grand juries for alleged molestation of a teenager which fell apart after a multi-million-dollar settlement with the boy's family.

The Relationship Test

The second canvas in this row reports the tale of a man who was arrested on suspicion of killing the 2 year old son of his girlfriend.  The couple told doctors the boy was napping when they realized he was not breathing.  The autopsy round severe abdominal trauma to be the cause of death. 

The Unthinkable

The story and stories behind this canvas go on today.  Hundreds of children have been and are being sexually abused by Catholic priests.  Most of the incidents are unreported, hidden by the church, and they are absolutely disgustingly unthinkable.

The Ugly Truth

The last canvas in the row, the final canvas in the work, carries a title that summarizes the entire work:  The Ugly Truth.  In this situation a police officer is accused of molesting a 13 year old girl, robbing her of her innocence and her childhood.

Reporting America's Story tells the ugly truth about violence.  Violence against men, women, and children because of hate, ignorance, jealousy, and prejudice attitudes.   So many stories in just one month.  Too much to read, day after day.  It forced me into my studio to create this statement work of art as a way to clear the stories from my mind.  

Reporting America's Story, a work of art

Pictured above are five of the rows, hung together.  I have explained four of them.  The fifth row has one canvas which tells the tale of a woman's violence against another woman.

    

Chilling

In this story, a federal grand jury issued an indictment that allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against a woman accused of killing an expectant mother and stealing her unborn child.

It is tragic that bad things happen to good people.  Innocent people's lives are transformed or ended by illness, natural disaster, and most sadly by human cruelty.  What causes some to think they can take their shortcomings, frustrations, anger, and stupidity out on others in violent action? 

Fight For Change

The last canvas in the fourth row deals with violence and feeling of prejudice.  Why would someone offer a $500 bounty to anyone who killed a gay teen?  Why would a pack of anti-gay thugs pour out of a pickup truck to kick and beat a teen?  Why would a father beat his lesbian daughter with a log chain? As the month progressed I became disgusted with these stories, angry and frustrated.

Bazaar

There must be three or four stories represented on this canvas.  They all deal with religious cults who sexually abused the children of the group, sometimes single events, sometimes in group events.  Stop and think about the number of stories I have re-told so far.  All of these were swirling through the newspapers that January, day after day.  Is it a wonder I stopped reading the paper?

Preacher

The fourth row of Reporting America's Story deals with violence, prejudice feelings, and religion.  There are three canvases in this row and Preacher is the first.  This is a chilling tale that has been lodged in our minds since we were kids, but came to life again many years after the initial crime. This is a 40 year old crime.  Edgar Ray Kilten, 80, a preacher and reputed Klu Klux Klan leader was arrested on murder charges in the deaths of 3 young civil rights workers.  Their lives were taken for something that every human has the right to do.....vote.  Forty years after the crime people were saying things such as:  "He wouldn't have done nothing like that.  He's a preacher."  Ah, the cloak of religion.  

Women Behind The Gun

This is the only canvas in the third row, the row which deals with women's violence against men.  Either men don't report incidents or there just were not many of them that January.  I did put the two reported incidents on this one canvas:

An abused wife plotted against and tracked down her fugitive husband.  She lured him home where she proceeded to stab him 65 times.  

Two women walked into a diner, shot two business men in suits who were sitting at a table.  They then calmly walked out and gave no explanation of their actions.

The fourth row has three canvases and deals with violence due to prejudices and religion.

Here are the last two canvases in the second row of:  Reporting America's Story...

Broken System

This man had a long history of run ins with the law.  His family had multiple restraining orders against him.  And then he kidnapped his ex-girlfriend at gun point.  Authorities pursued him because they found his slain parents and suspected him of their murders.  When they caught up with him a gun battle occurred and the girlfriend was mortally wounded.  He was jailed, but released early.

It Begins With Deception

Beardslee met Grimm in a local bar.  They got drunk and he strangled her later that night in her apartment.  He confessed and offered no motive for the killing, however he made sure to state he had gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd.  He had aspirations of becoming a lawyer or real estate broker.

There is a second story on this canvas about a man who slit the throat of a woman and dumped her body in a remote lake.

So far this covers ten or more violent stories that were reported over and over again that month.  It was depressing. And there were more....

Fateful Night

This deals with Blake, who shot Bakley, the mother of their infant daughter.  They dined at a local restaurant, where Blake appeared quite agitated. After leaving the restaurant, Blake returned to retrieve his gun...he took the gun with them to dinner...and stated that Bakley was waiting in the car.  He then changed his story, saying she was at home and when he returned to the home, he found Bakley mortally wounded.  Later, his gun was found in a dumpster close to the restaurant.  

Row Two - Men's violent behavior towards women.

There are five canvases in this row.  Here are two of them:

He Shot Her By Accident

When the authorities came to the front door of the home they found the woman's teeth scattered about the foyer and nearby staircase.  He said he shot her by accident but later changed his story saying she committed suicide.

Sit Down Beside Me and Hear My Sad Story

This canvas carries two different stories.   The first is about a pregnant woman whose husband is in jail, due to a conviction for spousal abuse.  She would like to divorce him before he is released and though it is her prerogative to do so, the judge objected.  Apparently he did not believe there was a pattern of domestic abuse to warrant divorce and he felt the woman should remain married because she was pregnant.


The second story involved a family dispute that escalated into a shooting at a hospital.  A man shot his wife and then himself.  Both were taken to a hospital.  Their sons, from previous relationships and unrelated, arrived at the hospital and began arguing.  The son of the wife shot his step brother, killing him.


These stories are absurdly disgusting.  And all being reported day after day.