Art Resume & Bio

Alan J. Lew
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. I said screw the future, but the future screwed me.

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 many 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) unless otherwise noted.

Spring Art Studio Cleaning Sale: East End Studio Gallery: May 26, 2012 It was Memorial Day Weekend. No one showed up.

Winter Juried Exhibition: December 1 - January 5, 2011 Two invitational works and one Honorable Mention.

Alan Jordan Lew - Not so Solo show 2: November 7th 2011 Second self organized solo show. My own chosen body of work. Approximately 100 works at Freeman Memorial Library.

Kemah Boardwalk Art Walk: October 2011 Visual Artist and artist vendor.

Art Outside (Rockdale, TX Art and Music festival, Apache Pass): October 7-9th 2011 Accepted Visual and vendor artist.

Sticky Note Art Exhibition: East End Studio Gallery: August 28th 2011 Participating artist. Made 50 sticky note collages.

Body Image Invitation & Juried Exhibition: August 18 - September 22, 2011 Two invitational works and 3 juried and accepted.

Alan Jordan Lew - Not so Solo show 1: July 22, 2011 First self organized solo show at Freeman Memorial Library.

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 "self recycled mixed media" 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.