Anthony D. Lee & Kiersten M. Williams Artists in Resdidence March 2008 |
For over three years Lee was a paratrooper in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. His military duties notwithstanding, Lee’s artistic initiative never quelled. He continued utilizing his talents by creating numerous murals and personal requests such as portraits, designs, and even tattoos. While in service he developed a new passion for the land and its features. Exiting the Army and compelled to have a career in art, he attended North Carolina State University in pursuit of becoming a landscape architect. The abrupt transition from the regimented Army Sergeant to indolent college student severely inhibited Lee’s creativity. He was lost between two worlds. This prompted him to leave school and find another way to invade the art realm. With his artistic intuition awakened, Lee began to paint again and a new entrepreneurial spirit had been ignited. He began to immerse himself in art and slowly marketed himself as an artist. A new confidence and support present, he quit his job and became a full-time artist in September of 2003.
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As a product of Memphis, Tennessee, Anthony D. Lee has been creatively influenced by the city’s atmosphere. Memphis’ attachment to pork cuisine combined with the musical ambiance and heritage that the city offers, and all during the years following the Civil Rights Movement, are contributing factors to the artist’s early development. He also lived on the island of St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, in which the vibrancy of life and color in that environment are now attributes to his visual work. More importantly, he is a product of the artistic machine created and run by Bill Hicks during the 1990s. Hicks, who is also a professional artist and mentor, has sharpened the skills of many mid-south artists such as Adam Shaw, Derrick Fordjour, Will Dixon, Kristen Myers, Benin Ford, Benedict Conley, Lester J. Merriweather, and Grier Edmundson. Upon graduation from Central High School, Lee forfeited an art scholarship to the University of Memphis to fulfill his sense of American citizenry by becoming a soldier.