Artist Statement
I see art as a way to relate to present times by doing research, writing and translating my findings into powerful visual images. Magazines, books and the internet are my sources of information. Creating the concept is the easy part. Transforming these ideas into artwork is a long procedure.
I usually start with a political conflict, a developing problem or just wanting to know about an issue. After making a lot of choices, I lay out the words and the drawings to the size I want. I have found the tree to be the best vehicle to create my artwork. I use the roots, the trunk, the branches and the leaves to describe my subject.
As you can see from these images, I have worked on The Women’s Tree to describe a woman’s many changes from puberty to womanhood. The Shoe Tree is a whimsical look at women’s shoes throughout the ages. Another name for the shoe tree is Foot Binding to the 21st Century Stiletto. Sometimes I call this painting Pleasure & Pain.
The Story of Eve I sometimes call Black and Blue Eve because of all the verbal abuse women have endured since the beginning of time. The implication is that It is probably all Eve’s fault for biting the apple! The Man Tree branches describe man’s puberty, fear, love and the evil he can do. Is he also the man in the shining armor or is it amour (love)? The Pandora’s Box Tree tells the story of Pandora who opened the box that released pain and suffering upon women.
Education
1966 New School for Social Research, New York City
1966 School of Visual Arts, New York City
1965 Art Students League of New York
1964 BA Briarcliff College, Briarcliff Manor, New York
Bio
Lynn Elliott Letterman is a Los Angeles-based artist who has been working and exhibiting her work in both Northern and Southern California for over 20 years.
After graduating from Briarcliff College with a BA degree, she attended The Art Students League of New York, the School of Visual Arts where she studied with the well-known illustrator, Frank Reilly, and The New School for Social Research.
Letterman then launched a career of her own as a graphic designer working for advertising agencies and studios in New York City, publishers like Random House and Newsweek magazine and artists like Peter Max as well as clients like the Bettmann Archive and The Art Director’s Club of New York.
She followed Andy Warhol as the Art Director for Aspen 5&6 Magazine where she collaborated with Tony Smith, Susan Sontag, William Burroughs, Brian O’Doherty and many others in this artists’ magazine in a box. The magazine can be seen in the collection of the Walker Art Center Library in Minneapolis, MN.
Letterman has been a member of the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art for 20 years and is now a board member of the Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art.
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