Saw an optpmetrist today about the increased and increasing blurryness in my right eye. The good news is that I’ve not killed anyone yet. The bad news is that this defect in vision cannot be corrected by lenses. The optometrist referred me to a retinal specialist. This does not bode well... for anything.

Nightmares again. Well, one big nightmare about a place mary and I built but no longer own. Once again I awoke breathing hard, thinking all was lost. So I'm working with what I have, again: brains and cleverness. Can I make a new future without loking back? How healthy a mind does that require? Imponderables.

This reminds me of something from my distant past. A group of investors wanted to give me $100,000 to promote my work, but the deal included the proviso that I essentially be chined to my easel, painting "for them" until I died. We went around and around, but I could never get them to drop that demand, so in the end the deal never happened. I have to wonder what might my life be like now if I had signed on the dotted line.

At any rate, the folks I'm currently talking with already have a vested interest in my work since each member has at some point acquired at least one painting of mine. Collectively, they have contacts in Hong Kong and other areas and would like to see the value of their works go up significantly in the next year. Their interest is apparently in having me expand my markets into those monied areas where it would receive "the recognition and prices it deserves." Well, maybe. I do know that they are in the process of making some kind of deal with a person or gallery in Hong Kong. Dubai has also been mentioned. Someone is also apparently putting together an auction site ONLY for my works, which might work in cooperation with my own corporate identity, Cirrus Arts Corporation, to make available a sort of commodity market for my paintings, both new and old. I can see some sense in this, because it could help create an honest global marketplace without the expenses and dangers of shipping works to galleries half-way around the world, and it would concentrate the active buying and selling of my work in one location, but for all to see, letting the market place its own value on the pieces. It actually sounds kinda fun, But for the moment, all I can say is that negotiations continue.

You surely noted that the home page has changed on this website. This is because I have been in discussions with a loosely knit group of collectors who have expressed an interest in furthering my career and are planning to establish a major presence in the secondary (or re-sale) market of my work, which has become quite active of late. They have first expressed interest in acquiring older paintings and having me develop an authentication and, if necessary, escrow service to aid them in this pursuit. In addition, they have expressed serious interest in purchasing all my current work that is not available at galleries, as well as future works I may produce for a limited time. All I can say at this time is that discussions will continue until an agreement, if possible, can be reached. Apparently, someone has finally recognized that I'm now 60 years old and that there will eventually be a finite number of Lee originals available for purchase, and they want to have a head start in profiting from that eventuality. It is with this in mind that I am soliciting older works, especially from estates. I have been watching the secondary market in my work for several years and must agree that prices are all over the board and currently create an impediment to the furtherance of my career.

As plans for an authentication service become further developed, I will post them on my website.