USN parent ‘30
“Emotional is the word that I love most when anyone describes my work,” says Wee. “The mood and feeling that cannot be succinctly described but with a look or expression, a mix of any complex blend of hurt, hope, anxiety, love, joy, strength, fury, peace, past and future - the intersection of emotions as I'm painting the piece and the connection with the viewer.”
Wee has been working in oil paint since 2019. For the prior decade, art came to him in the form of portrait and fashion editorial photography. “My childhood was filled with creativity. When I was in grade school, I was obsessed with creating comic books with pencil and paper. I would bury myself in comic books and then create my own characters and stories. My favorite part of the process was creating the backstories of the characters, describing their layered personas.”
“I spend much of my learning time on craft and technique - achieving likeness, realism, harmony or discordant compositions, and compelling brush strokes. I consider these as the vocabulary and the resulting painting as the visual poem with the hope to connect with the viewer.”
I’ll paint a peach just because I wanted to paint something fuzzy. But the pieces that I create for shows like Artclectic, I create them with the intention of having a meaningful significance. I’ll often paint a small study to see how the elements work together before jumping into the larger canvas. I make art with emotion and symbolism, with which I have a strong connection in narrative. My hope is for a viewer to create or discover a connection to the piece, bringing their own narrative and symbolism.
It may seem like a cop-out, but I’ve already created many dream projects! The notion of someone hanging my hand painted pieces in their home is simply a dream come true for me. I don’t take that for granted and still feel gobsmacked when thinking about this. So, I do have an idea for a children’s book. My son, Elijah, is a non-verbal developmentally delayed incredible child and I plan to one day write and illustrate a children’s book about him. My hope will be to create awareness and normalize the idea of kids like Elijah, who uses a talking device on his iPad to communicate.
The Cleveland Museum of Art. I spent some time here as I grew up in Cleveland and it was free to enjoy. I did a senior project on a Picasso still life and sat for many cumulative hours in front of it. Then about 30 years went by without me visiting this museum until July 2023, when I visited with my family and for the first time as a working artist. I’ve visited a few other museums of greater notoriety, like the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and Uffizi Gallery in Florence, yet The Cleveland Museum of Art has a special place in my heart.
