Lexi Reedy - Another Cool Artist From Lowell

Lexi Reedy - 

the picture her mom wanted me to use.

To hear Amy Reedy tell it, her daughter Lexi has been dancing to a slightly different drum beat than do her five older siblings. Part of her dance has involved picking up pencils and brushes to sketch and paint since she was a wee one -  not that Lexi is all that old - she is currently working her way through her 15th year on the planet.

I had an opportunity to see some of Lexi's work a couple of weeks ago and they blew me away. The first one I saw was this guy:

You how it is when something speaks to you? My wife picks out gemstones to set in the jewelry she makes when they talk to her. Lexi's work was hollering at me right off the bat.

According to Lexi, she has been drawing things "as long as I can remember." She enjoys being able to think of something, visualize it and then see what she can create from that visualization. She went on to say, "Its also just really fun and helps when I'm bored or can't sleep."

I love bold, expressive work - Lexi does a great job to capture our attention with her use of color and the expressions she puts on the portraits she paints. Apparently, she does not always have a finished product in her mind's eye when she commences. 

She said, "Painting is fun because it takes less thinking [than drawing] and I don't usually plan out what I'm painting before I do it, so it ends up being a lot more spontaneous and creative."

FYI - she likes to paint people she sees on her Instagram feed. 

Especially the ones who "look interesting or have a certain feature" that catches her imagination.

I have been blogging about how critical it is to fairly compensate public school teachers and something Lexi related enforces that position. When I asked her if she was inspired by any particular artists, she gave a nod to Van Gogh for his choice of colors and brush stroke technique and then continued, ""I don't know if this really counts, but my elementary art teacher from Saranac was pretty cool. He is probably why I like art so much, he was an interesting dude."

Well done Mister Mike McGee.

I should also mention that Lexi's mom is extremely happy with the extra mile

effort exerted by her current art teacher Ms Miller.

You can read more about why I think teachers should be 

well paid if you CLICK HERE.

A collage of Lexi's portrait work.

When all is said and done, Lexi comes across as a pretty good representation of a 15 year old in my opinion. She just put in her last night of the season as a junior varsity cheerleader for the local football team - something that she really enjoyed. But she made it clear that we should not mistake her for some high energy teen-age ball of fire.

"...even though that is sort of a sport and takes a lot of energy, I'm usually the polar opposite outside of that and end up napping or going hammocking." 

Hmm, going hammocking sounds like a sport to me.

My friend Ryne Clarke has set up a website on which he is promoting

artists of all kinds from the West Michigan area.

Your can buy some Lexi art there:

Lexi Reedy Artwork on RyneShyne.club 

In the interest of covering my bases (or covering my butt) 

I will attach below the picture Lexi wanted me to use.