drawings and works in other media in a ten year span during the 90s. Ironically, his passion for painting and his prodigious output nearly killed him. By 2000 he had literally overdosed on the toxic fumes, by way of paint inhalation and his doctors insisted he stop painting immediately or perish. It wasn’t until 4 years later, 3 major surgeries and the opportunity to receive the experimental drug Xolair® that Lakey reached a point of recovery.

“Silhouettes & Shadows” is an exciting evolution of the artist’s work. These remarkable new paintings begins with the simple outline of a person’s body part – particularly hands, feet and heads that becomes the center of an explosion of color and design - a visual language that appears to be tapped into the inner mind or the outer reaches of space.

Mr. Lakey began the “Body Project” in 1995 when he started recording encounters with people such as David Wolper, Kelsey Grammer and Ray Charles. “Andy was meeting all kinds of interesting people and over time he began to do tracings as a process of documenting people’s information in his own unique way. This process of tracing their body part (a torso for example) on a blank sheet of paper became the genesis of a new phase of work and the results are extraordinary and unusually powerful. “Silhouettes & Shadows” is the convergence of unique painting techniques, a mastery of line, color and form and a surface style that can only be described as Lakey-esque.

In 1990, with no formal art education, Lakey folded his life savings into purchasing a studio and painting supplies. Within months, Lakey was discovered by fine art critic and curator Pierrette Van Cleve who described Lakey’s work as both “primitive and sophisticated” at the same time.

Visit the “Silhouettes And Shadows” microsite online at this address: www.silhouettesandshadows.com