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**** Please note: I am a painter, not a photographer. ****
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Ideas and Thoughts…

I am a California-born artist.  I paint from my feelings and the feelings around me.  I paint to share what I see and feel. I feel as if I am on a journey that will never end. I am fascinated by the female form and see it as the epitome of beauty. (Beauty...that which can be soft...that which can be stark or harsh.) As my vision evolves, I begin to explore issues that deal with how society views women, and women's own feelings and their own views of beauty and sexuality.

I am disturbed by the backward perceptions of beauty and violence in this country. The glorification of violence can be evidenced throughout the arts (movies, etc.). Even in everyday life, the daily news is peppered with reports of violence and killing. On the other hand, the human body is seen as something that needs to be covered up and censored. God forbid if a woman’s breast is bared on network television. (Note: this was written prior to the Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime incident – and the inane brouhaha around that is a wonderful example of priorities being screwed up…We should be much more concerned with the example set for children by the violent ripping off of a woman’s clothing than with her breast being bared.) By comparison, in many other cultures (many of the European ones, for example), the human body is seen as something beautiful and violence is seen as obscene. To abhor the celebration of our bodies and embrace the violence done against them sickens and disgusts me.

I am saddened and concerned by the current uproar surrounding art in terms of obscenity and our bodies. In our society, it is customary to give flowers to show love/like/friendship/appreciation...I wonder how many people realize they are giving or receiving the sexual organs of plants? Subtle and not-so-subtle references to our sexuality occur everywhere (just look at advertising). On the other hand, when listening to some members of our elected government, one gets the idea that anything that does not conform to their ideals (especially that which deals specifically with our sexuality) is dangerous and should be censored. (Again, this was written in the past, but it is still true and is actually getting worse in this country.)

All this indicates to me that something is wrong. I believe that we should all be concerned and try to do what we can to get off this track to a hellish future. I want to do something in this society that will make a difference and help. I hope that by sharing my art I can help to challenge people's preconceived notions and prejudices by opening their eyes to the beauty, wonder and excitement there is in this world.

Eban.

Biography:

Eban Lehrer was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Although very accomplished, he is basically a self-taught artist (he has taken only two formal classes - beginning drawing and beginning painting). Eban's artwork opens a window to the haunting side of a woman's beauty that society often sees as threatening. He has always been interested in the exploration of the boundaries that society imposes arbitrarily. Pushing and challenging these conventions often leads him to new, exciting adventures in art.

Eban Lehrer began painting as an adult (as Paul Gauguin did). He is essentially without formal art education, having only taken two basic art classes, a beginning drawing class and a beginning painting class in the continuing education department at Otis/Parsons.

"I give a tremendous amount of credit to my teacher, Clyde Semler (who taught both classes). He saw that I had something inside me and helped to draw it out (pun intended)."

Eban started off painting still lives and landscapes. He thought that these genres would be the best to pursue as a potential body of work to sell. He also enjoyed painting the figure and portraiture and did that on the side for himself.

"I gradually discovered that people were drawn (another pun intended) to my figure work much more so than my still lives and landscapes. It became apparent to me that I should pursue the portraiture and figurative works wholeheartedly as my enthusiasm for the subject matter was manifest in the work. One important aspect of my work has evolved into an exploration of a strange dichotomy found in this society: the wanton acceptance of violence versus the censorship of the human body in its natural state (nude)."

Creativity seems to run in his genes – his mother painted, his grandmother painted, his father wrote, his uncle sculpted and many other relatives are involved in the creative arts.

"I didn’t really do much art as a child. It never occurred to me that that would be something that would hold my interest. I thought I would be a race car driver or a scientist when I grew up. As an adult, when I took that drawing class on a lark, it seemed as if a dim light inside me began to grow brighter. As I continued on in the painting class and beyond, it began to shine. It was as if something that was always inside of me was finally growing."

The times Eban has been forced to take a hiatus from painting have helped him understand the meaning of art in his life.

"I had stopped painting temporarily to deal with some personal matters, and after a couple of months, I began to feel uneasy. Nothing I could really put my finger on, just something did not feel right. This went away when I went back to my art. Some years later, I had to take another hiatus from art and this time, when I was hit with the same feeling, I realized that art was an integral part of my life."

Eban paints from life.

"There is something that is very important about having a real person sitting for a painting. I have tried painting from a photograph in the past and it just not the same. The light is flat. When there is a human being across from me, light flows around the person. I feel the presence of the person. It imbues the painting with a spark of life from the individual who is there. It makes the picture much more real to me."

Eban has been influenced by many artists, among them Klimt, Dali, Van Gogh, Magritte, Picasso, and Freud. One of his strongest influences is Egon Schiele.

"I have always admired the emotion in Schiele’s paintings. One of the greatest accolades I have received is having someone say that my work reminds them of Egon Schiele’s."

Eban’s work has been seen in a myriad of venues and has even been used in a movie.

"I find it a great compliment that, even though I am a man, my art work was chosen to represent the work of a female erotic artist in the movie "Click: For the Love of the Click"."

[b]Eban has exhibited in many local and national galleries, from Los Angeles, California to Las Vegas, Nevada to New York City, New York. He has two pieces in the permanent collection of the Museu de l' Erotica in Barcelona, Spain.

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