by Stephen Dare……

Dare: Would you claim that Jacksonville is a city?

Lee: It used to be. before the fire, it was a city.

Dare: Can it ever be a city again

Lee: Not until the klan gives up control.

Dare: Art in Jacksonville: what should it’s role be?

Lee: Art should be a liar.

Dare: In what way?

Lee: the viewer must read between the lines

Dare: Why do you say that?

Lee: Well if art is obvious, it’s boring.

Dare: Have you been bored much by art here?

Lee: Jacksonville has pushed my limits. It makes me my raise my threshhold on just how boring art can be.

Dare: Should there be a penalty for bad art?

Lee: It’s it’s own punishment.

Dare: Who does it punish?

Lee: Thats a good question…..who does art punish?

Dare: In your opinions, what is the single most important current of society that is influencing arts now?

Lee: The collapse of the global economy.

Dare: Why is that?

Lee: because it eliminates the “so called artist”

Dare: How do you mean “so called artist” and how does it eliminate them?

Lee: Because the aesthetically ignorant no longer care about art if there is no longer any money in it. and 99.9 of all artists and the riff raff that follow them are aethetically ignorant—- and thats a global truth, not just here.

Dare: Even New York?

Lee: Especially new york.—-and in new york the worst artist is better than provincial little places., so basically cats, rats and sewer rats make better art than provincial little towns.

Dare: Do you mean like Jacksonville?

Lee: no answer.

Dare: What is the greatest threat to Jacksonville’s art?

Lee: The Carpet baggers….especially the ones coming from New York, New Jersy, Connecticut and Ohio, coming here just like they did after the Civil War, to rape every man woman and child. And I mean literally.

Dare: You mean literally raping, as in an act of physical sexual unwanted violation?

Lee: Literally.

Dare: How are they a threat other than the raping?

Lee: The lack of personal hygiene of course.

Dare: How does this threaten the local art scene?

Lee: Well it would only threaten the local one, because in the bigger sense Jacksonville has absolutely no effect on the bigger art scene. There isn’t even anyone who seems interested in the bigger arts scene……but how can you ask that question? Have you ever been raped?

Dare: What should be encouraged here.

Lee: I’ve always believed that Art is a mental illness, and no one is encouraged to be mentally ill,…. perhaps Artists should be forced to paint for their lives. It would make it so much more interesting if artists were forced to join aesthetic competitions in which one out of every ten artists were physically liquidated. Art is too easy. Any monkey with a subscription to Art in America can convince the other monkeys that they are creating art. But would it be art for other animals, like Zebras or Giraffes? The problem is that people are more interested in creating art for their little cliques and not interested in creating art….taking the chances that offend other people.

Dare: Is money important to art?

Lee: Money is a weapon

Dare: How do you mean?

Lee: Well if someone critiques your art and they don’t like it, you can pay someone to beat the shit out of them. That’s where money comes in handy. Especially when the media attacks your art….in which case you can pay someone to spraypaint “stupid fucking bitch’ on the side of their car…(sorry gwynedd)

Dare: You’ve gotten your fair share of media attacks, both national and local. Would you care to comment on any of the local attacks?

Lee: Well the first thing i want to reiterate is that I never threw a pan of urine on a Florida Times union reviewer, but I will admit that I put her in the Mongolian Backbreaker, one of my favorite wrestling moves. How they chose to characterize that later is extremely unfortunate, but I thought she understood that we were all having fun.

Dare: But it’s not just the Times Union is it? Werent you attacked by Folio, repeatedly? I had heard you were at one time personally stalked by one of their writers. Would you care to comment on the criminal and legal actions that were threatened? How did you react to the Folio brickbat? What was that about?

Lee: Folio’s hatred of me and my work is the best thing to ever happen to me. I don’t believe that there is anyone that is under 60 is there? Even the editor over 70? I just hope they can stay alive long enough for the case to be heard by the supreme court.

Dare: How can Folio’s hatred have been good for you?

Lee: Because they are the type of people who bite the heads off of iguanas and parakeets.

Dare: I still don’t see how that helped you?

Lee: Have you ever seen the teeth and claws on an iguana? Folio People wiped out almost all of them in the region.

Dare: Let’s get back to the brickbat…what was that about?

Lee: It was after coming back for a visit while I was living in Manhattan. Just before coming home, I had been participating in the largest anti-war protest in history The RNC protests. After being there on the frontlines of every major assault in that larger protest…the fox news protest, the UN protest, the critical mass protest, and then the Republican National Convention’s Answer March on sunday, which was the largest peace march in the history of America, There were 800,000 people in that march alone…..I was still full of that incredible energy.

In fact I had just been criticized in the national press for my artwork condemning the Bush Cheney Administration. (Charles Manglin, Chicago Tribune’s comments were the most offensive) It was a turning point in the history of this country. That event redefined what it means to oppose the type of tyranny we were seeing with the Bushies. The consensus was overwhelming even life changing. And in fact many of the kids who participated in that event, the ones who were tear gassed, tazed, beaten, and kept in chicken wire pens for days at a time—-those people are the ones leading the national and international movement to restore this country to what it should be. Obama owes EVERYTHING to those people. He didnt really exist until those groups of people decided to start voting for him and organizing for him.

So after that, flash forward and I’m back in Jacksonville in December of 2004, where even the democratic party was being run by a bunch of klansmen in business suits, I felt some one had to do something. I went to what is supposed to be the hippest and most progressive area in Jacksonville, Five Points, where I found out that Folio doesn’t want anyone being uppity…not even the white guy living in greenwich village.

Well for Folio to brickbat me for protesting the policies of the BushCheney administration and insinuating that I was a Nazi for disagreeing with those same policies that the rest of the country had converged on New York just weeks before….well that was interesting.

So thats it isn’t it. A brickbat coming from those people who were willing to stick up for the worst criminals in our history. Anyways who gives a shit what Folio thinks? They probably still think 911 was a legitimate terrorist attack and make fun of the 911 truth movement. Its just litter box lining for most people. Do you know why there are so many Folio’s downtown? Because it’s what homeless people have to use to wipe their butts with.

I refuse to talk about Folio anymore. Lets talk about art.

Dare: What is the role of public opinion?

Lee: It plays no role in art.. The only thing that plays a role in art is the artists obsessive need to make it, and the collectors obsessive need to own it.

Dare: But dont you think that without public opinion no one would even know to find the art.

Lee: No I believe in intuition. You are where you are supposed to be, and if you are not there well then you are just shit out of luck… that’s why art shows are filled with women and gay men. And children.

Dare: What are you talking about?

Lee: Well its just my experience after hundreds of art shows. If you see a straight male over the age of 25, he’s either their with his girlfriend, wife or mother, or he’s from homeland security.

Dare: Don’t you think that Public Opinion helped create Picasso?

Lee: No absolutely not. Picasso was too much of an egomaniac and too obsessive an artist to be affected by public opinion. Its like a schizophrenic. Who does he listen to? The people around him or the voices in his head?

Dare: What about public opinion in the business side of art?

Lee: It’s easily manipulated.

Dare: But haven’t you been criticized locally for doing just that?

Lee: What am I supposed to be? a starving artist. Which is from what I understand, the only acceptable artist in Jacksonville. Thats not my style

Dare: What role has public opinion had in your own career?

Lee: For me its always identified the assholes and the jerks.

Dare: And once you identified them, then what?

Lee: I ignored them. Then I forgot about them.

Dare: What is your favorite period of your own art?

Lee: I really love what I’m doing now, because its so dark and so truthful that it frightens children. But I still enjoy seeing my earlier work, I enjoy my abstract period from the early 90s and then 99-2003. What Im painting now is more topical, more representative, less intuitive, but no less precious than the more intuitive work. Genesis is, to this day, one of my most important works. I could bear to let anyone else have it. Its still on my wall.

Dare: What have your relationships been like with your collectors? How would you describe the energy that those relationships create?

Lee: First of all it’s important to differentiate between collectors and patrons.

Collectors are not really serious about their support of the artist, whereas a patron is there to perpetuate the creative process. Collectors stop when the walls are full, and Patrons collect regardless.

So collectors are more of a business relationship.

Dare: How does the relationships with the patrons play into your life and work?

Lee: Most are my dear friends.

Dare: Is there some connection between your patrons beleif in your work and your work itself or is it mostly spiritual in nature?

Lee: Collectors use their heads and patrons use their hearts, so it would absolutely be more spiritual.

Dare: So there are complex relationships that surround the creator of art? Youve identified patrons, and collectors. Are these different from a person who simply buys one or two peices of your art?

Lee: Patrons don’t buy art. They buy time for the artist.

At this point I have become so exclusive that it takes an act of God to get to the point to even look at my private collection to see it, much less buy it.

Dare: But dont you have shows?

Lee: Yes, but I believe that there are more pressing concerns so I’m not driven to be involved with the commercial aspect anymore. Art shows dont mean a whole lot when the waters are rising and the cities are burning. The past two years, I have gone out of my way to not put myself out there. I mean for Christ’s sake, how much does any one person really need?

I like the role of the Mentor. And now I have the chance to return the favor of my many mentors.

Dare: How would you define the word ‘Monster?”

Lee: Its the new word for yuppie. We don’t call them yuppies anymore, we call them monsters….like I call soldiers ‘murderers” and Bankers “thieves”. And I’m really relying on the dictionary here. I have never needed a soldier, and I have never needed a banker. I’ve never understood the relevancy of either soldiers or bankers…..have you?

Dare: Since you’ve lived in New York for three years prior to your return, was there anything that had a great effect on you? Who do you think is relevant now?

For me personally, seeing the Phillip Gustin retrospective at the Metropolitan, the first and second Ryan McGinnis show at the Deitch Project Galleries, but the most important peice of art that I saw in the three years was the Damian Hurst Canvas covered with flies at his gallery. Which was a very large canvass that was covered, instead of with paint, with an inch thick coating of flies.

Dare: Why that particular peice

Lee: Because from a distance it looked like a minimalist painting, and up close it made you want to vomit…absolutely fucking brilliant.

Dare: Why was it brilliant

Lee: It’s uniqueness.

And of course add all of the amazing street artists like sheppard ferry, faile, bast, and skull phone. They are the bastard children of cost and reves Keith haring. and basquiat, they were the first real street artists that went beyond graffitti. It was all very very relevant for 2004 and that whole street era—its over now of course, at least as something relevant to experiment with.

Dare: Anything local?

Lee: That’s tough. I have to put my local artist thinking cap on.
I’ve really enjoyed Mark Creegan’s new conceptual work. Partly because its the most unsellable thing ive ever seen in my life, and partly because he has the background and the experience and the balls to challenge the status quo. He really should be in Manhattan.

Dare: Really?

Lee: Really, he’s one of the best artists in Jacksonville.

Dare: You know I always like things to be aesthetically pleasing, and for whatever reasons, Ive just never gotten into Mark’s work…. Yet i have heard a similar assessment from another person whose opinion I also respect, so I am curious. What is it about his new work that has changed, or have I been missing something?

Lee: Well I think a lot of credit has to go to David Lauderdale, his professor and mentor. Its Mark’s absolute lack of shame that allows him to make some of the best art in jacksonville. he is the real thing.

Dare: What quality is it that you see in the recent work?

Lee: I cant explain it. That’s what being a good artist is. You get an idea in your head and you are forced to do it and you don’t care about the consequences or the reaction.

Its like my mentor, Pete Peterson, whose work I have an extensive collection of, who painted the most striking nudes I have ever seen in my life, in a place that considered the nude image pornography. These young artists owe much to Pete.

I like the bad knitter, I like that work alot…I dont know who it is, but they put it up all over the place, these are things that I consider, in thier own times, Pure. Unlike all this faux street art that we see all over downtown, with these family friendly images –which I find detestable, There is a room that the police are putting up their own works of graffiti art, posing as artists so as to take all the fun out of doing street art. Locally because of these bastards, its become a bad joke.

And don’t get me started on silkscreens. If I see one more goddam silkscreen or faux silkcreen im going to hit someone in the head with a squeegee.. I mean please this is so cliche. Get over the silkscreens already, its over like hip hop. When cops start doing thier own graffiti and making silkscreens you know its over.

BTW, if anyone offers to sell you a Lee Harvey screen print and its not from me, Lee Harvey, its a fake.

end of Lee Harvey Interview. Part One of Five.