We were on our way to Hoover Tower (on the Stanford Campus) to photograph a sunset in the autumn of 2002, when a glint of metal caught our eye. It was an etched stainless steel sculpture by Lee Kelly, entitled Stainless Garden. We loved how it reflected both warm and cool light, and how the piece kept changing with the light and our movements. It was as if we were dancing with it. We spent hours that day, and many more over the next 8 months shooting close-ups of the piece. Everytime we visited Stainless Garden, we kept saying "wow, we are so lucky to have this close by -- we really should find this guy and thank him."
We did some internet searches and this June found an art gallery Portland, OR, that carries Lee's work. We then printed some of our shots and sent them -- along with a letter of thanks, to Lee, in care of the gallery. Several days later, Lee called us and we had the most wonderful conversation! He loved our images and gave us full permission to use the images in any way we want. During the course of the conversation, he said that if we were ever in the Portland area, to come see him. Needless to say, we planned a trip to Oregon!
For our trip in August, we looked at the bio on Lee's website, and decided we would visit as many of his works as we could during our visit. Lee wasn't available until the last 2 days of our trip, so we spent the first 5 days of our trip traveling up and down Oregon to see his work. You can see many of our shots on this website.
When we finally met Lee, it was as if we had found a long-lost member of our family. We spent the most incredible day with him in his garden in Oregon City, and then for part of the next day, Lee took us to several of his pieces in Portland. The more we saw of his work, the more impressed we were. In addition to being an amazing artist, Lee is a wonderfully complex, interesting (and interested) human being. Many of his pieces are inspired by his travels to Asia and Nepal. We learned so much about other cultures during our visit with him!
If you are interested in a future retrospective publication of Lee's work, all inquiries can be directed to Bruce Guenther at the Portland Art Museum.
We hope you take the time to look at and savor Lee's work -- both here and on his website.