Macey Lipman ~ The Artist
For most of his life, Macey Lipman was involved in the music business. Early in his career, he worked with such diverse artists as the 5th Dimension, Heart, Chet Baker, Ravi Shankar, and Johnny Rivers. In 1972, Lipman went off on his own to break new ground and founded the first-ever independent marketing company in the recording industry. He managed marketing campaigns for scores of top recording artists, including Barbra Streisand, Cher, Madonna, Lionel Richie, Rod Stewart, Andrea Bocelli, Janet Jackson, Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton, Prince and Tina Turner, among others.
These were the “golden years of rock ‘n roll.” But I still continued to paint during that time. In my early career in music I moved from New York and Philadelphia to Los Angeles and, soon after, had success with a group called the 5th Dimension. They won a Grammy for “Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In” and “Up, Up and Away.”
Lipman accumulated a total of 57 gold and platinum album awards during his career in music. After almost 30 years in the recording industry, he closed his business to pursue another life-long passion – painting.
“When I was a kid, my mom would often take me shopping to the downtown stores in Philadelphia. I remember the exact moment when we walked through the art section of Gimbel’s department store, and I smelled oil paint and linseed oil for the first time. I had no formal training, so it was a trial and error process. Today, I make fewer mistakes and I’m willing to change and correct them. “
It wasn’t until November 2002, when I had my first show at the Hamilton-Selway Gallery, that I decided to sell my paintings. “But that show gave me a taste of how exhilarating it could be when someone loves your work enough to commit to purchasing it. In 2004, I had a show at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Sales Gallery. Six Giclee prints were sold.”
Wine county and the world of viticulture are often motifs for Lipman, whose recent work includes a series of paintings set in Napa and Sonoma, CA. Another recurring theme appeared quite by accident. Without being aware of it, he gravitated to pictures of reflections, often appearing in windows – the context that, somehow, we are a component of our environment, integrated into the landscape without being physically conscious of it. This theme keeps popping up in his paintings
Lipman has opened a gallery/studio in West Hollywood where he spends most of his time painting five days a week. You’re welcome to drop by and check out his latest work in progress. Macey Lipman Art is located at 101 South Robertson Blvd. suite #212, Los Angeles, CA 90048, phone 310.652.6030.
For the past several years Lipman has traveled to Florence, Italy, where he was accepted at The Michelangelo Accademia D’Arte. There he has studied the Renaissance technique of using egg tempera as well as creating paints and colors from scratch. He lives in Italy during September and October where he maintains an apartment while attending classes.