- Me trying to smile without a grimace
I work as an artist and I dream a lot about places I’d like to see, then I make pictures and maps of these places, which are often imaginary.
My name is Lee Mothes, or Rusty for short. I grew up on the California Coast, studied mostly art and some architecture in college, moved to the Oregon Coast in the early 1980s where I built my own house, got married and started a family. We moved to Wisconsin in ‘86 to raise our three (wonderful) daughters near all the relatives.
I missed the coast and ocean intensely so I began painting a series of dreamlike beaches and coastlines that provided a way to ’be there’. After a while, I drew a map and wrote a sort-of history-geography about a largish island that became the home of these places. The island has become my some-time retreat as well.
