Artist turns early lessons into 40 years of success

Michael Lee has made a living with his art for about the last 40 years.

“I had other jobs, regular jobs, and I was never happy doing those … so I just decided at one point to become an artist,” he said. He set out to sell his art and did not starve to death.

His watercolor or acrylic paintings, ceramic dishes, matted prints, T-shirts and onesies, notecards, mouse pads and more are available mostly at craft fairs large and small, but selected items are available at retail on Oahu, Maui and Kauai.

Way ahead of the curve of the plastic bag ban, Lee has been selling canvas bags bearing his artwork for at least 20 years.

Colors in Lee’s work range from soft, calming pastels to in-your-face bright and bold.

Lee sells his work through a few retail galleries, and particularly likes working the craft fair circuit because “I enjoy meeting people,” he said. Some are repeat customers who look forward to his new designs, whether in the form of an original painting, print, something wearable or another functional form.

Original watercolors range from $110 to $450 framed, while his original acrylics range from $240 to $1,200.

“I got into ceramics basically by accident,” Lee said. He attended a prayer meeting at a ceramics business owned by a fellow church member, and, after he expressed curiosity about ceramics, “he encouraged me to try it, so I just started doing it and it just developed from there.”

Many ceramists dip their pieces in glaze, but Lee’s style is to hand-paint them. “Everything I do is hand-painted. … I try to achieve a watercolor effect,” he said.

Some customers have hung his plates or trivets on their walls for decoration, and another confided that a bowl she bought from him is put away in her china hutch and that “nobody touches it but me,” he laughed.

“If Picasso painted a plate,” Lee said, “the value would be in the artwork. Hopefully as I develop my artwork, maybe it’ll be a good investment down the line,” he chuckled.

One customer who met him while vacationing in Hawaii did see Lee as a good investment, and became his wife. Frances Lee works the business-y side of Michael Lee Designs, emails catalogs to customers who request them and gently helps keep her husband on-point in interviews.

Lee’s mother was perhaps his earliest investor, as she “saw artistic ability in me early,” he said. She signed him up for his first art lessons when he was about 7 years old. “From the magazines, those correspondence-type courses,” he explained.

Lee continued his art education and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in art from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

He tried the workaday world, with a stock clerk job at a supermarket, and at the U.S. Postal Service, but the gigs just weren’t for him. Art was, though.

“I’m just an artist,” he said. “I give all credit to my creator and Jesus Christ my savior, because without him I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing,” Lee said.

In his early days he “primarily did watercolor paintings … (and) specialized in dogs and cats,” which gained him a following among dog lovers and cat fanciers, both for his more literal, realistic depictions as well as for his “whimsical” canines and felines. He painted many other animals whimsically and realistically, as well as lush landscapes and another specialty for which he also has become known: flowers.

He got into it “mainly because people like flowers and I enjoy doing them,” he said, explaining that “they lend themselves well to the watercolor feeling.”

Looking through his craft fair booth or his catalog, you easily will want a full set of dishes, matching spoon rests and trivets in each of his designs, and you might consider giving one or two sets away to your mother, sister or best friend. Maybe.

The smallest ceramic items he makes are coasters that absorb water for $8 each, or a set of four for $30. The largest items he makes are bowls about 12 inches in diameter and 5 inches deep, and a platter about 13 inches long and 10 inches wide, each of which sells for $95. No one ceramic item is priced at more than $100, though address tiles at $25 each could run higher than $100 for a set depending on the number of digits involved.

“No order is too small or too big” for him, he said. “We work with a company that brings in gifts for conventions” but also take smaller special orders for weddings, graduations, Christmas and the like, Lee said.

Small orders might take three weeks to fulfill, while an order for 50 vases might require two months of lead time, he said.

“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.