Clay Lipsky: Due West

Clay Lipsky: Due West by Aline SmithsonAugust 19, 2016

©Clay Lipsky, from Siren Song

Lenscratch Art Director and fine art photographer, Clay Lipsky, has created an “ongoing visual exploration of the iconography, promise, and realities of life in Southern California.” As a transplanted Angeleno, he traverses a city in search of its essence, only to discover its subtleties and complexities. It’s a city steeped in silver screen mythology and defined by its coastline and freeways. Clay currently has six projects that describe his city created under the umbrella of Due West, each created as a soft cover art zine and bundled into one collection that can be purchased here.

The Due West Book Set

Clay Lipsky (b. 1974 USA) is a fine art photographer and Emmy Award winning graphic designer based in Los Angeles, CA. His artwork has been published and exhibited internationally, most notably at the United Nations in Vienna and NYC, the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Romania), Galerie le Carré d’Art (France), Lishui Photo Festival (China), the Annenberg Space for Photography (USA), the Smithsonian’s National Atomic Testing Museum (USA), Esquire Russia and was a Critical Mass Top 50 selection.

©Clay Lipsky, from Siren Song

Due West

Due West is a collection of personal art projects inspired by Los Angeles and life in Southern California. It is simultaneously a love letter to The West as well as an examination of it from the inside out. Growing up in South Florida, I appreciated coastal living but soon wanted to trade my “Sunshine State” for the “Golden” one filled with a cinematic energy. Upon graduating high school I fulfilled that desire by heading steadily westward to ultimately call California home for over 20 years now. Through these visual explorations I hope to dissect the timeless allure that drew me in and embrace its beauty, both hidden and fleeting.

©Clay Lipsky, from Siren Song

The resulting series are a diverse mix, years in the making. As I have grown and evolved with this city, so too have my creative approaches. I feel the variety of techniques reflects the many facets and ways this metropolis can be perceived. In short, Siren Song speaks to the manufactured imagery in TV and movies that drew me in as a child. Undertow is about the solemn bliss and rebirth one finds at the water’s edge. Totems shows how advertising shapes the urban landscape while Landlines is about the hidden beauty that the city’s infrastructure provides. Raiders features the fearless spirits of Venice Skate Park, while Urban Space explores an abstract, cosmic thought of life beyond our man-made confines, the ultimate escape from the urban condition.

©Clay Lipsky, from Siren Song

Due West will be an ongoing collection for me, a conceptual umbrella that justifies my diverse visual ramblings and act as motivator to keep looking at the city with fresh eyes. It is primarily an online gallery, but I offer print and video content as well. The current print iteration is a bundle of six art zines, each featuring a different body of work. They are perfect bound and average about 25-30 pages each. I really enjoy self publishing as it allows the photos to exist physically with the enhanced context and dialogue that sequencing allows. Additionally there is a music video collaboration online with acclaimed electronica artist, Daedelus ( https://www.facebook.com/Daedelusmusic ), a native Angeleno who graciously provided me with a soundtrack to explore motion experiments with for the Landlines series. Ultimately I just want to have fun creatively, grow as an artist and share my perspectives of the West Coast.