Lee Berlin

After stepping away from art for years, South Florida artist Lee Berlin found his way back to creating through an unexpected source of inspiration: a play written by his daughter. Today, his work blends painting, photography, digital techniques, bold color and a lifelong love of music.

Originally trained at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Lee began his career in art and art direction. Like many creatives, he found it difficult to make a steady living through art alone and eventually shifted into the financial industry, stepping away from creating. Art, however, never fully left his life. His daughter — now a television writer — grew up surrounded by his paintings and never accepted that he had given up something that meant so much to him. So she did something extraordinary: she wrote a play about it.

The play followed a father stuck unhappily in an insurance office and a daughter determined to bring him back to art. When the production opened in Long Beach, California, Lee flew across the country to see it. Watching his own story unfold onstage changed everything. After all his daughter had done, he felt he would be “the worst human being in the world” if he didn’t start painting again.

Back home, he set up an easel in his garage and began. One painting led to another. Lee became involved with ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale, eventually serving on its board, and his work started gaining wider exposure throughout South Florida.

After years balancing multiple careers — including financial sales and a 20-year run hosting a radio show — Lee is now fully focused on creating. “Now I’m 100% focused on creating art because it’s my pleasure and my joy, and I love doing it.”

Lee’s work doesn’t fit neatly into a single medium. Some pieces begin as photographs he takes himself, which he then transforms digitally using a Wacom drawing tablet. Others are traditional acrylic paintings. Sometimes the two worlds meet, with photography incorporated into acrylic pieces. Metallic papers, unusual textures, vivid colors and constant experimentation all play a role. One principle ties it all together: Lee wants every creative element of the finished artwork to originate with him. He photographs. He draws. He paints. He manipulates. He experiments. Often, he doesn’t know exactly where a piece is going when he begins.

If art is Lee’s first creative love, music isn’t far behind. That influence is especially clear in his colorful, music-inspired works. One piece began as two separate paintings exploring a deconstructed guitar. After living with them for a while, Lee decided they belonged together, combining and reworking them until they became a single composition.

Another piece explodes with color, musical references and unexpected imagery — including a rabbit inspired by Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.” There aren’t always preliminary sketches or a predetermined destination. He starts somewhere, and one idea leads to the next. “I never know where it’s going. I don’t have sketches. I just start.”

That willingness to experiment runs through all of Lee’s work — photography can become digital art, a guitar can become an abstract composition, and a musical memory can find its way onto canvas.

Lee has been creating in South Florida for nearly two decades, and we’re thrilled to have his work as part of the creative community at Latitude 26 Art Gallery in Downtown Lake Worth Beach. His story reflects something we believe strongly at Latitude 26: there is a person, an experience and a story behind every piece hanging on a gallery wall. Sometimes discovering the artist makes you see the art differently.

Watch our conversation with Lee, then experience his work in person at Latitude 26.