Emily McCombs on Lee Price: Eat. Drink. One Woman:
If you look quickly at Lee Price’s hyperrealistic paintings, you might mistake them for photographs. But the 44-year-old upstate–New York artist would rather you focus on the subject matter than the technique, which is, for the most part, women and food. Price, who studied painting at Philadelphia’s Moore College of Art, has a long held fascination with the intersection of these two subjects, inspired by her own experience. “The food thing came up because I’ve had issues with food ever since I was very young, and body image issues. I was always very thin but always trying to lose weight,” she says. “They’re very personal paintings.” In fact, the images—bird’s-eye views of women surrounded by luscious-looking desserts or the crumpled wrappers of a junk-food binge—are all self- portraits, painted from photographs of the artist. The life-size works show Price, often nude or in underwear, in unusual eating situations, like sprawled across a bed shoving a pastry in her mouth or crouched in the bath tub holding a full pie. On one level, her work is about compulsivity: the aerial view is meant to conjure the sensation of watching oneself engage in a compulsive behavior and being unable to stop it. That aspect seems to resonate for many— Price often hears her work referred to as “binge paintings” or “bulimia paintings.” But she asserts that the images of women in repose surrounded by unrestricted portions of decadent treats can also be seen as a kind of liberation from the constant monitoring of food choices that so many engage in. “In this society, there’s so much pressure for women to be thin. We’re not supposed to have appetites—and not just for food, but for a lot of things. We’re the givers and not the consumers, and I think some of my recent paintings are about the women staring at the viewers and saying, ‘I’m not going to censor my appetite,’” says Price.
Read the full article and see additional paintings here: Eat. Drink. One Woman:
Check out Lee Price’s website here: leepricestudio.com
Live & Learn 
Build it and they will come. These are the kinds of interesting stories one would probably never find out about if not for this thing we call blogging.
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So interesting you mentioned that Ray. I found the “story” to be as powerful as the art (if not more so)…
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woman and food..both need to take off to please ?
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Kalabalu, I need a bit of interpretation here…please.
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walk inside my mind..and don’t be scared to see ..the ideas that tease to please..and play hide and seek..
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Ah yes. A Koan. Brilliant.
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Lee’s work is an honest reflection and understanding of some of the issues that women in general face. Unfortunately these issues and pressure that I too have felt over the years, can become a compulsive addiction for a few, to hide their vulnerability and fears that they are not perfect!
The pressure interestingly that I have found, often comes more from other women than men. My gift to pass on to my two daughters is to teach them to love and accept their bodie’s and to focus more on their health and self-esteem and less on this pressure to abide to what society dictates as “perfect”.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughtful comment. I would not have known that there is more pressure from women to women on weight. A learning for me…As to your daughters, wonderful, heart warming comment. Thanks for sharing Karen.
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Food for thought? This brings up so much for me. I’ll bet many (most) American women can relate to this, starting in high school, continuing in college, constant self-analyzing, planning, obsessing, failing, starting over again.
On another note, I didn’t know what a Koan is; thank you for expanding my horizons.
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Yes, and the concerns for women haven’t abated over the years. If anything I would argue, that it is worse today, if that is possible.
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I love her story and the images supporting her concept. Her observation that woman are not supposed to have large appetites for anything in life, has been an ongoing conflict since the beginning of time. Powerful post.
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Yes, yes, yes Beth. Thank you.
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Wow…it’s hard to believe that those are paintings. Amazing talent, although I must admit the one of her lying on the bed with cupcakes scattered all about did make me feel a bit uncomfortable. 🙂 It is a sickness, the whole food thing, especially for women.
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Yes, esp the painting with the cupcakes. That was left me with a similar feeling…whoozy…she is an incredible talent. And love that she shared her story.
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This is simply a WOW.
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It is Sonia. It is.
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