LEWIS TILLEY

ARTIST/TEACHER

by Hunter Frost

To call Lewis Tilley a “Renaissance Man” would be to do an injustice to this remarkable artist who is very much a man of our time. Lew Tilley is thoroughly a contemporary artist. He is a painter, a printmaker, a graphic designer, a film maker, an animator and a photographer. For the past eight years or so he has directed his talents to the production of computer generated graphics. In this field he has been an innovator, and his work is internationally known.

Lew Tilley first came to Colorado Springs in the late 30's to study with the renowned painter, Boardman Robinson, who headed the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center School. Lew also studied here with Adolph Dehn, one of the nationally famous artists attracted to Colorado Springs by Robinson

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Earlier Lew had studied art at the High Museum School of Art in Atlanta, Ga. Which is now the Atlanta Art Academy in Atlanta. In those days lew worked at a number of occupations to keep going financially. For example, he ushered at the Erlanger Theater in Atlanta. During summers he would travel and paint $100 portraits when ever and where ever he got the chance. But the most fun, he says, was working as a radio actor. He remembers with pride his series on Edgar Allan Poe.

Lew earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Georgia where he studied with the illustrious John Held, Jr., one of the original staff member designers of the New Yorker Magazine and its annual cover showing the profile of “Eustace Tilley.” Lew tells the story that Held used to call him “Useless Tilley” At the University of Georgia, John Held Jr. became almost a surrogate father to Lew. He worked as Held’s assistant and also as a student teacher.

Another of his teachers in Georgia was the muralist, Jean Charlot, who would come later to Colorado Springs to head the Fine Arts Center as a result of Lew Tilley’s strong espousal of his candidacy. Lew had assisted Charlot in the painting of a large mural at the University of Georgia, and Lew knew that Charlot was a major talent in world terms

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Lew Tilley was urged to come to Colorado Springs by Lamar Dodd, who was head of the Art Department at the University of Georgia. Dodd had studied with Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League in New York, and he knew that for Tilley to study under Robinson would produce exciting results

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Lew’s exceptional talent at drawing was quickly recognized by Boardman Robinson, and as time went by Lew became Robinson’s right hand man and teaching assistant. After Robinson’s serious strokes Lew Tilley took over his classes and taught them. He continued teaching at the Fine Arts Center School for another six years.

In those days, under Robinson’s direction, the Fine Arts Center School was nationally known. Major artists such as Adolph Dehn, Arnold Blanche, Doris Lee, Lawrence Barrett, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Rico LeBrun were drawn to teach here by the charismatic Robinson. Lew Tilley found himself in a

stimulating environment that helped him to continue to grow as an artist

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However, as is often the case with highly creative people, Lew Tilley was not content to repeat himself. As the School changed, Lew became increasingly interested in finding new fields to conquer. Even as a teenager Lew had loved movies, and he found a chance to get into this field right here in our town.

Lew made the decision to try his hand at this, perhaps the most exciting art form of our era. His talents were welcomed, and he went to work as a script writer and eventually as a producer/director with the great Alexander Film Company here in Colorado Springs. This company, as many will remember, was nationally known as the leader in the production of commercial short films used in movie theaters and on television to advertise national clients such as GM cars and trucks, Bulova and Elgin watches as well as local industries such as dairies, car dealerships and so forth.

Lew scripted movies and directed and produced them as well. He recalls those days with great gusto, and he especially enjoyed making the exciting kinds of movies that required the talents of Larry Heller, the legendary stunt man at Alexander Films who specialized in crashing cars at high speeds and other deeds of deering-do.

On returning to teaching after his years with Alexander Films, Lew taught a full menu of art subjects including life drawing, painting, printmaking, graphic design, film, animation and photography. In Europe he taught at Cortona, Italy, and in Africa he acted as a communications media advisor and professor of Indiana University working with the Ministry of Education in Northern Nigeria with the USA I.D. program.

Back home Lew joined the arts faculty of the University of Southern Colorado, serving as Acting Chairman from time to time. Along the way he had earned the M.F.A. degree from the Universidad de Guanajuato’s Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

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Most recently Lew has been developing tutorials and articles in creative computer graphics for such publications as Jump Disk, Amiga Plus and Your Amiga in London. Now, he is quietly returning to painting in water colors and oils and printmaking.

Lew’s Awards, one-man shows, participation in juried shows, published articles in national magazines, and so on, are too numerous to list, but form a deeply impressive record of his life in art. His hobbies include cooking, writing verse, architecture and travel

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His paintings and prints are in the collections of many local people, and also in the permanent collection of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.