Alan J. Lew
16310 La Avenida Dr.
Houston, TX 77062
phone: 832-618-0117
e-mail: west1710am@gmail.com
website: http://www.inwex.net
Education: Clear Lake High School, Clear View High School. Graduated in 1996.
History: Hello, my name is Alan Jordan Lew, a local visual and auditory artist. I was born in Houston, TX 1977. Started as a classical music composer at 14 then when I turned 17, mixed media collage work came into my life. Reoccurring nightmares plagued me at the time about fear of the future, and the consequence of human burden - including my own actions. I was in my last year of high school yet depression seemed to get a hold of me more. The only way at the time to deal with the pressure of school & music was to open myself visually. This became excessive and obsessive. I am a creative workaholic by nature, and will continue to be so. In other words, I don't feel any other purpose in my life than to be passionately creative in my two fields of life study. My method of collage is intense, detailed, and demanding. I have been a part of 7 group shows, and still love composing music. I do art and composition most parts of the day, and long into the night.
Visual Broadcast: All Shows and entries have been at TAACCL (The Arts Alliance Center of Clear Lake)
Summer '11 Juried Exhibition: June 2 - June 23, 2011 Open Doors Series Two works juried and displayed.
Winter '10 Juried Exhibition: December 2, 2010 - January 6, 2011 Open Doors Series. Two works displayed.
Fill in the Blanks Exhibition: October 14 October 28, 2010 One piece per invited artist.
Freeman Memorial Library: December 3, 2009 - January 7, 2010 For Open Doors Series: Winter '09 Juried Exhibition. Two works shown thanks to Debra Kendrick.
The Geek Show: August 16th - September 13th 2007 Won "Best of Show" Award for my 3-D sculpture "who's watching you?"
Three invitational works and two other works submitted to be juried - both were accepted. Interviewed for 88.7 KUHF on The Front Row.
Winter '06 Juried Exhibition: December 14th - January 11th 2006 Two invitational works - did not submit work to be juried, though.
The Figurative Show: August 17th - September 14th 2006 No invitational works - submitted two pieces to be juried - both were accepted to be shown.
Hello Again: August 25th - September 22nd 2005 I was one of three people to win the "Best Body of Work" Award. Three invitational works and two others were entered to be juried - both were accepted. (This show was canceled a week short because of Hurricane Rita)
Creating collage composition:
At first I usually have no idea what the image will look like. Its a process that becomes easier as long as you start somewhere! I methodically cut small pieces of paper to reconstruct the image onto another natural pattern. It was a hypnotizing experience. For hours I would make patterns and cut the patterns up on another prepared collage. Then sometimes cut that up again. Turning out almost as a "self recycled collage" Trying to learn the value of space vs. detail comes along the way when color is balanced with shape. My only tools are a pair of regular sized scissors, as many glue sticks as it takes, and applied with my finger. I'm not used to working with tools such as tweezers. If dealing with 3-dimensional work I must use a screwdriver kit to take the casing off of dead electronic devices, and pliers to break parts off of circuit boards and metal.
My light on night photography: (taken from NoHoartdistrict.com) North Hollywood featured artist.
As if time was the only factor in my daily life, I try to record every hour of it by night. Obsessed with the natural shadows into the things I cannot see - the final result of the photo visibly explains these shapes of dark matter in a clear marriage of captured time within space. This not only displays the existence of variable time within a frame, but also random fractions of my personal life. This is important for me to have a visual representation for each of these remembered moments. Unable to sleep before 5am on any given day - I turn to the city at night with my cameras to record the time in which most people have missed out on, and will never get to see again.