Iconic Columbia painter ‘The Chicken Man’ has much more to give after 24 years
Ernest Lee, known colloquially as “The Chicken Man” around Columbia, drives into his well-known corner stand in a hard-to-miss fashion — towing a decked-out trailer adorned with painted chickens.
He jumps out of his car apologizing for being late (he had to stop for gas, he says), and he is immediately off running around the lot, grabbing paintings from storage, setting up tables and more.
The painter gives the impression of someone who doesn’t like to be still.
His getting-ready process doesn’t take longer than five minutes, and he’s soon sitting down on a paint-splattered table in the shade of a large tree on the corner lot. His faded blue jeans and magenta T-shirt are similarly splattered with rogue strokes of paint, and he’s wearing a bucket hat that he painted himself in a haphazard-yet-systematic way.
Even though he’s sitting, he hasn’t become still. His hands move a lot while he talks. Sometimes they paint his words in the air, but mostly they just fidget with whatever is close at hand: a plastic water bottle, a loose thread in his jeans, his hat.
It’s here at his corner stand, located at 2250 Gervais St. (just past the intersection of Gervais and Harden streets), where Lee will host his upcoming five-day art event.
The event will run daily July 16-20 from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and the first day will feature free food, live entertainment and hundreds of new pieces of artwork.
The event is coming together already. Lee has already laid out his paint-splattered tables under the skeletons of outdoor tents. He just repainted the pavement with arrows to direct the flow of visitors and a new mural of chickens playing instruments. (“This is where the band will be,” Lee said, gesturing toward the artwork.) And the storage building is filled to the brim with Lee’s artwork.
Lee has “300-400 paintings, easily” ready for the event, he says. “Probably more than that even.”
Lee, who turned 61 earlier this year, has been painting for 54 years, 24 of which have been here in Columbia.
He got his nickname, “The Chicken Man,” from the chickens that are often featured in his artwork. The chickens were an idea from a man in Augusta and aren’t related to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, he says.
His artwork is ubiquitous in the Columbia area. His signature stick-legged chicken paintings hang in restaurants and salons, on front porches and in living rooms. Some of his pieces can be found selling for hundreds of dollars on websites such as eBay.
“I was even doing this before ‘Chicken Run,’” Lee says jokingly, referring to the animated movie that came out over two decades ago.
Growing up, Lee lived in Florida and worked as an orange-picker through his adolescence and early adulthood. His family didn’t have a lot, he says reflecting back, but that didn’t mean it was okay to give up.
This lesson helped later in life, he says.
“There were many times I thought I should quit,” Lee remembers, “but I already came too far to do that.”
Lee described the pandemic last year as “rough,” saying every day, “I was just trying to make it.”
However, it didn’t stop him from painting or from going out to his stand nearly every day, he says.
Lee is doing better now, he says, which is part of the reason he’s hosting his art event.
“A lot of it is about giving back,” he says earnestly.
Lee also hopes that the event will help him realize his dream of one day establishing a permanent art studio, gallery and shop, he says.
Through it all, Lee says he’s grateful to have been able to be a part of the community in Columbia for so long.
“You gotta love the people who love you right back and who support you,” Lee says.
