Lee Truman

All the Way Down was made for a month-long wintersession intensive called Your Life Illustrated that I took my freshman year at RISD- the prompt had to do with childhood imagination. The first version was really frustrating to draw, and later sat untouched on my desk for maybe a week and a half after I turned it in the first time. As the burnout from fall semester eased, I started to feel less up-tight about drawing for fun and found myself returning to rehash this drawing digitally. I enjoyed the process immensly, and in the end, I turned it in alongside the original as part of my final for the class.

the Section 15 Billetboux was made as a love letter to my freshman year. Originally drawn on 27 sheets of 5x7 inch printmaking paper, the finished project was presented as a printed zine with a page dedicated to each one of my freshman studio section-mates. Before college I’d never been in a formal critique before, and foundation studies rocked my tiny world to its core. I was instantly mezmerized by the variety of my classmates’ sensibilities and their dedication to their unique specialties. Their insights filled my imagination with color- connecting with this many other artists was so new to me: Most of my teens were spent in my room, reading comics and sketching by myself.

My loneliness evaporated.

Untitled assignments #1-8 were created for my sophomore Visualizing Space class. All of them are from a series meant to flesh out the sulture and landscape of a fictional civilization of our own creation. Assignments #4, #5, and #6 were turned in as a triptych for the class final.

The cards are from a series of postcards I painted the week leading up to the start of my medical leave of abscence from college in 2022. I was not doing particularly well at the time, and began doing these little paint studies to keep my spirits up. I ended up with 5 total, and brought them home with me for my parents. These ones were my mom’s favorites!