Wilson Lee Jr.

• Born: Greenville, Mississippi
• Active: Nashville (Davidson County)
• Region: Middle
• Medium: Wood
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Wilson Lee Jr.

Wood has been a part of my life since birth. The first steps as a child were toward a bowl of shellac. My earliest carvings were created when I was twelve years old. Later, the creative spirit allowed me to speak about social issues through wood carving. Someone had to offer a comment for the record. I chose to speak through wood sculpture. Using mallet and chisel, the goal is to capture the African American experience in America. To paint a picture of reality in wood. Each work has meaning expressed in abstract images captured in relief and three dimensions.

Abstract expressions represent comments on issues, events, and beliefs. Subjects include ethnicity, blues, protest, morality, spirituality, justice, hate, freedom, gentrification, black church, racism, and other realities. The process involves transferring an idea, thought, or concept from mind to hand and chisel and onto the wood. A dance occurs between me and the wood. We become one. The wood that once lived lives again when the work is finished. The wood tells a story.

I am inspired to create by a child in church with one braid that will not stay down. A dancer in a night club moving to the music alone. Works may also come from dreams that come to the surface in the middle of the night.

My first steps as a child were toward a bowl of shellac in my father’s shop. The family, including my mother, brother, aunts, and uncles, refinished and repaired antique furniture. After learning the steps to refinishing furniture, I found that woodcarving allowed for more creativity. Woodcarving was a way to comment on the world in which I lived. I started carving at age twelve. The work grew with me in a changing world during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. I wanted to capture the spirit of that time in my work. Each work became a statement on what was happening around me. While earning degrees in Social Science, Public Affairs, and Sociology, I kept the creative spirit alive by developing a style of my own. The work would parallel a forty-year career in higher education administration. The abstract expressions still represent the reality of people struggling for equality. The work touches on religion, blues, marriage, family, spirituality, justice, hate, freedom, and ancestry. Wood being the medium for this expression, I wonder what stories will be told. The stories that trees tell. What have they seen? What have they heard? What did they witness? The wood that once lived lives again in the work. In doing honor to God, I again want to give meaning to that which has lived. The wood speaks to me, and a dance occurs between us. Together, we create a work that makes a statement. Underlying the abstract is a conceptual message that is often religious and justice-conscious. Someone must leave a comment for the record. I choose to comment through wood.

Crafting Blackness Exhibitions

Embracing Blackness