Lee Smith is a Boston-based artist whose stained glass works focus on nature, architecture and science. It is important to him that he helps people remember a time when pride and craftsmanship were the exemplary.

“Glass is my vocation …”

“My art is the only thing that puts me in spirit. I am guided by thoughts of the balance of nature during the whole process. Conceptually, my influences, architecture, nature and science are not independent; they are a part of the chaos of the world that surrounds them. Art must be inclusive and embrace this chaos … glass is chaos; I am humbled it shows me such grace.”

“I try to help people see the beauty things that normally go unobserved, to remember a time when things didn’t move so fast, when a grain of sand itself told time. History helps me reflect and to become aware of my surroundings. To be aware is a path to enlightenment, as time has no agenda it teaches without a clock.”

Smith grew up on the East Coast and worked on the West Coast in the film/music video industry as a scenic painter for Industrial Light & Magic and Primitive Productions. In addition, he has painted murals in San Francisco and Oakland, California. He is also a musician, a farmer and a carpenter. He has been working as an artist for 25 years.

Current Projects include:

1) Brookline Door Project circa 2004

There was a time when craftsmanship & beauty were the focus. When getting the Job done was more about pride and quality, a time when we didn’t move so fast.

“Doors are the gateways to opportunity” The Brookline Doors Project (BPD) is an example of how Brookline is a community that reflects this quote. These doors were built in a time when the integrated symbiotic relations in this process embrace so many different aspects of a solid community. Not one person but many. Reaching out to the citizens in the form of an art loan program it is my hope that schools, public facilities and companies that have shown a commitment to the citizens of Brookline will benefit from this art history retrospective. The expectation of this project will be of a global audience but during the initial 1st phase the constituents of Brookline will benefit directly from the BDP. I will use all forms of decimating information; media, internet and speaking engagements to maximize exposure and to document the ambitious nature of art and history. The project will be evaluated in the implementation of the art loan program and its success as a revolving exhibit. The locations will include BHS, Brookline Town Hall, Library and two local businesses.  With time I hope that the BDP will become a model for other cities.

2. Pump House Project. With Help from the MWRA.

Stainedglasssmith is proud to share with you a new project. The Pump House Project.

Rendering pump houses from the mid 1800’s to early 1940’s in glass panels.

We are moving so fast we are going backwards.  In this project history is a way of telling us that one hand washes the other. Richardson and Archimedes lived thousands of years apart, together they are a symphony of great influence. New England benefited greatly from this union, as did the rest of the country.

The Pump House Project is being executed to show through science, architecture and nature an evolution of many great ideas that combined to touch art and life.

Archimedes invention of the screw and its use to gather and distributing water is one of the most important inventions of man kind.   He was so revered that even his enemies did not want him dead, his death was a mistake. A tragedy to all the things he had not yet invented. His was a time w/o computers a fear in rational knowledge that only the very wealthy and powerful dared to solicit. His concepts are woven into the fabric of our society yet few of us know who he is.

HH Richardson was a brilliant architect and had a significant influence amongst his peers in an industry that is so cut thought. One of these areas was the community building stone pump houses in New England.

Every city and town is a like body, pump houses are the water organs that keep the citizens alive.  these buildings go unnoticed. They have been forgotten, left to the weeds sinking in the earth, statues to the prosperity of a civilized nation. We need water a lot more than water needs us.

Initial sponsor ship of this project is associated with the MWRA and SGS.

Funding for the first phase of this project is $50K, There are three phases for this project.

Companies wishing to sponsor this project can do so in amounts of $500, $1k, $5k & $15k. The acknowledgement of these funds will breakdown like this. All sponsors will beacnowleged on the website. $500 + will be included with one issue of a quarterly news letter sent via US mail.

$1k will include two issues of the news letter and be etched on a glass kiosk in lower case letters. $5k will be a preservation member and will have there information etched on a glass kiosk. $15k members are benefactors that will receive all these membership benefits in addition to; picking venues for loan program, news media unless it’s an anonymous donation. Etching info on kiosk in all capital letters. The Kiosk will be displayed with the panels.

Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) studied at Harvard and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1859-62). While in Europe he worked under Henri Labrouste and Jakob Ignaz Hittorf. Trinity Church, Boston defined his unique style which became known as "Richardsonian Romanesque". It is a revival style based on French and Spanish Romanesque precedents of the 11th century. (Romanesque preceded Gothic in European architecture.) Richardson's style is characterized by massive stone walls and dramatic semicircular arches, and a new dynamic use of interior space. Continuity and unity are the signatures of Richardson's style. The Richardsonian Romanesque eclipsed both the IInd Empire Baroque and the High Victorian Gothic styles; the style had a powerful effect on such Chicago architects as Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, and influenced architects as far away as Scandinavia.

Diodorus Siculus (c. first century BC), Bibliotheke, Book V, 37.3-4

and what is the most surprising thing of all, they [Roman slaves] draw out the water of the streams they encounter [in Spanish mines] by means of what is called by men the Egyptian screw, which was invented by Archimedes of Syracuse at the time of his visit to Egypt; and by the use of such screws they carry the water in successive lifts as far as the entrance, drying up in this way the spot where they are digging and making it well suited to the furtherance of their operations. Since this machine is an exceptionally ingenious device, an enormous amount of water is thrown out, to one's astonishment, by means of a trifling amount of labor, and all the water from such rivers is brought up easily and from the depths and poured out on the surface. And a man may well marvel at the inventiveness of the craftsman [Archimedes], in connection not only with this invention but with many other greater ones as well, the fame of which has encompassed the entire inhabited world . . .

Both of these men lived relatively short lives. There genius lives in the fabric of our society, allowing us life and beauty. It a shame they never met. Or maybe they have.

It is this union of these great men that has inspired me to present this project.

3 NYC HYDRO TOWERS 08

I have been fascinated by the water towers in New York since I was a little shit. Something that has to do with water IM on it.

4. Salt and Pepper Bridge Boston 06

5. Custom House Boston 08

6  Kissing Fish. 06