Released on = August 19, 2006, 8:55 am

Press Release Author = Larry Estes

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = An artist who developed his art in a factory receives some
national attention for his speedy drawings. He wins an honorable mention from a
curator from the Metropolitan museum of art. He is on his way, finally.

Press Release Body = Larry Samuel Estes
August 19, 2006
720 East Little Creek Road
Norfolk, VA. 23518

757-636-5466
artes@cool.hrcoxmail.com/www.drawingmyshipin.com For Immediate Release




What happens to an artist's work when subjected to real-life limitations of two
essential elements of life - space and time?


Three drawings will provide an answer in a "Works on Paper" Exhibition, juried by
Colta Ives, Curator for the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. The show opens August 26, 2006, at the Mills Pond House
Gallery in St. James, New York.

In the mid 80's, Larry Estes joined a factory in Virginia. Without a studio and
unable to suppress his urge to draw, he personalized his workstation with a drawing
board.
Initially, he created sketches for paintings he planned on completing when he got a
studio. But that never happened. "I couldn't afford a studio. My sketches eventually
gave way to frenzied drawings fueled by the frustrations in the factory," Larry
explained.

Streamlining his materials to black ink on white paper, he focused on speed and
rhythm. Stealing gaps of time in between running widgets on the assembly-line, he
honed his drawing skills by mass-producing a single image until he had drawn it to
its dynamic conclusion. Thereafter, he developed an alphabet of repeated patterns he
called pen "katas", a term for form he picked up from his karate class. Visualizing
his paper as a large wall and his pen as a brush, he kinesthetically overcame the
spatial limitations of his environment. Looping one continuous line, he drew in 2
speeds simultaneously, the micro pace of the pen and the macro pace of the
visualized brush stroke.

Larry's work has evolved into a tension-release explosion on paper, ending with a
controlled rip. With its sense of urgency, his style is as representative of his
experiences in the factory as it is of the times in general. "The factory was my
studio, the machine my master. Adaptation became my subject matter," Larry
reflected.

Larry vowed to win an exhibition in New York - without a studio. He maintained that
goal after leaving the factory, by drawing at fast-food restaurants. "Color entered
my palette at fast-food restaurants, in the form of fashion drawings. I used coffee
to mix the colors," Larry said. In the spring of 2003, while drawing at McDonald's,
he received some good news. A Soho gallery called announcing that an assistant
curator from the Museum of Modern Art had selected him as a winner in a national art
competition. The prize was an exhibition in Soho, New York.

Throughout Larry's journey to develop a dynamic visual language, an underlying
figurative drama was simultaneously unfolding. It would be rich in archetypal
symbolism. But this is another story.

The exhibition, sponsored by the Smithtown Township Arts Council, lasts from August
26 - September 23, 2006.
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Web Site = http://www.drawingmyshipin.com

Contact Details = Larry Estes
720 east little creek road
Norfolk, Va. 23518
artes@cool.hrcoxmail.com
757-636-5466