Lee Baumgarten
“Creativity is like a puzzle and it’s up to us how we put it together.”
Bio
Lee Baumgarten, Visual Artist, 1955-2019
1980, BFA, Columbus College of Art & Design
1982-1985, Fine Art Professor, Columbus College of Art & Design
1998-2003, Founder of Gallery 237
2008-2014, Founder of Civic & Cultural Arts Center Non-Profit
2014, Founder of Baumgarten Studio
Lee was a proponent/advocate for creativity and innovation, pushing for a better paradigm in public education and advocating “Art” as a catalyst for change. His presentation at the United Design Alliance (UDA) 5th Symposium in Switzerland/Liechtenstein National Museum (September 13, 2017) packages his perspective, passions, and concerns regarding the growing realizations in support of new constructs determining our “human ecology” and modern social movements utilizing art & design as a vehicle. Lee believed in the increasing awareness of creative thinking and Human-Centered Design(HCD) is a viable and unstoppable evolution toward a more incredible global culture.
He received grants, awards, and honors. Still, the most centric was a national grant to his non-profit organization, CCAC (Civic Cultural Art Center), by the Dunspaugh-Dalton Foundation in 2013 to promote STEAM education in Charlotte Mecklenburg school systems.
Lee regularly produced artworks, gallery exhibits, student workshops, and cultural projects in the Charlotte area since 1988. His efforts in supporting experienced and budding artists alike expanded the love for creativity into the hearts of many.
LATE WORK
STATEMENT
Beauty has a way of spilling out onto a table and etching its way into the heart. It is witnessed in a brief moment of harmonious balance in odds. It can be a notion between what is desired and what is curious. It is at the core of all Aesthetics, that makes us human.
However, I want more; to share with others the very essence of an idea - that what is considered in relation or in proportion to something else - that what we see as we size and measure ourselves to the world.
Art is an address to acuity through action. Creativity and art-making translate what we find worthy and inspiring. The challenge is to shape and form the intangible into something real. Something concrete.
CHARCOAL
SCULPTURE
PAINTINGS
DRAWINGS
EARLY WORKS
THE ONE HEARTS , 1996, Commissioned for the 100’ atrium of Spartanburg Regional Medical, SC.
Oil on canvas, 19’ x 36’
Ripstop nylon, Steel Sculpture, 20’ x 14’ x 24’
THE ONE HEARTS, 1996
HEROES PATH, 1994, Commissioned by Mathews Medical Center, NC.
Oil on canvas, 9’ x 35’
Abstract 12, 2002 Wells Fargo Conference Room
Oil on Canvas, 6’x14’
River, 1995, Carolinas Medical Center Main
Oil on Canvas, 5’ x 12’ (1 of 2)
Koi, 2009 , Carolinas Medical Center Steele Creek
Oil on Canvas, 8’x14’