Showing off some finished pieces, artist Eric Lee  works primarily in oil in conjunction with a number of experimental techniques involving furniture satin, ashes, concrete, ignited gunpowder, digital components, and a variety of papers.

When he’s not making gorgeous custom snare drums for local musicians via Oliver Snare Drums, Eric Lee is in his studio painting, building, destroying and lighting stuff on fire. We asked the multi-faceted artist about his inspiration, using combustibles on canvas, and his show “Violence, Penitence and the Very Old” opening at our V1 Gallery on Jan. 9.

The theme seems sort of winking, like a big collection of sort-of related things. What kind of show are you going for? Tell me about it.

This will be a mix of very recent and not-so-recent paintings, which for me will be a sort of “goodbye” to what’s lead to this point. I’ve worked with the same ideas of loss, ruin, and generally the passing away of generations since 2008 or so, and I seem to be ready for the next step.

A lot of your work spans an array of media (and even includes drum building, etc.). Do you have a favorite to work in? What will show up in the show?

Yes, oil paint has always been my favorite medium, though I utilize it more specifically and with more intent now than I had in the past. I don’t paint just to paint. I use paint if the subject and the ideas calls for it. If something is better said with wood or paper, then I’ll use those. This was hard for me to admit at first, and I still struggle with that letting-go process. The show will indicate this, I think, and will include lots of fire-based media, plastics, papers, oil, and wood.

FEEL THE BURN. Lee works on a piece for his show at The Volume One Gallery,
hanging throughout January and February

Where do you draw inspiration and what is your process like?

Inspiration comes from my family and the past. I’m very fortunate in that I still have grandparents. They have had a major impact on my life. Most of what I paint is about them in some way, filtered through me and my experiences living in heavily industrial Superior, Wis., which they live near. Superior and its structures came to embody everything that fascinates me about the life-cycles of people and what they leave behind. As for the creative process, it is – for me – one of having a destiny: I know where I want to go, and the fun is getting there. Art is a way of thinking, of problem solving. I’m lucky, because the problems I want to solve occur very naturally, so the concepts are already there. My job is to find the best way to realize them so that they communicate well. I’ll often not “know” what exactly it is I’m saying in a work until it’s finished. When that happens, I know I’ve done my job.

I’m interested in the use of combustibles to sort of provide an industrial, working-class feeling to a lot of your work. Where does that urge come from?

Using combustibles comes again from my associations with older generations. I would hear stories of this store or that street, and when I’d walk these places there would be virtually nothing left. Just char-black bricks, or the dark foundations of a ruined structure. The act of burning came to signify the end of a course of life. Stories of World War II were a major thing for me as well, and Superior being a shipping hub was once quite important. Over time, fire and explosives became more about violence to both people and landscapes as I was exposed to them through stories, disappearing neighborhoods, and old ruins.

Obviously, you’ve got a lot going on. How do you compartmentalize your workflow between your personal work, Oliver Snare Drums, and everything else? Is it tough?

Yeah, it’s tough to maintain everything. I’ve began thinking I may have to set something down for a while, but we’ll see. I love it all. But it’s a time issue, and certainly a financial one. It’s a very, very nice problem to have when everything I make sells! I also keep up with my playing (drums), but just don’t have the time to do much with it aside from practice. What’s interesting is how my new, upcoming work will involve much of what I’ve learned building snare drums with creative uses of wood. So a cross-pollinating thing has happened, which I’m really excited about.

Is there anything else you want readers to know about the show?

Only that I feel fortunate to have had this life, and that I now seem to have a shot at another, a life of renewal and looking forward. Maybe one that’s more of my own making. One I can invent. Yeah, this show is a very fond goodbye.

“Violence, Penitence and the Very Old” opens at the V1 Gallery (205 N. Dewey St., Eau Claire) on Jan. 9 and will run through February. To learn more about Lee, visit eric-j-lee.org.