CARPENTER, architecture graduate, 2012 York Mystery Plays actor and self-taught artist Lee Boxall is exhibiting for the first time at Victor J’s art café and bar in Finkle Street, York.

“I moved to York last year and I find the city a constant and ever-changing source of inspiration, ranging from people and ‘faces’ of the city to its wonderful architecture,” says Lee, whose work varies from a pastel close-up of The Purple Man cyclist statue in Stonegate to Behold My Head, his study of Ferdinand Kingsley’s crucified Christ in last summer’s York Mystery Plays in the Museum Gardens.

“I’ve always relied on art to express myself and in many ways free myself. This exhibition shows work from up to ten years ago – when I used art as a way of dealing and coping with both my sexuality and the life-changing accident I had in my mid-twenties, which led to the loss of my right leg below the knee – right up to my very recent work.”

At the time of contacting What’s On, Lee’s latest piece, Cold Stone, a painting of York Minster in this winter’s snow storms, was still drying at his studio in Bar Lane Studios, and it has since taken its place in a debut solo York show that will run until the end of April.

“My collection of work is deliberately diverse and I make no apologies for my inability to adopt a style, subject matter or art media. I love to experiment and question what I see and feel and directly allow this to effect my artwork,” says Lee, whose works often start life as a poem.

“I think art should be unapologetic in its approach to subject and method, questionable in its depth and substance and always accessible, always accessible.”

Lee, who was born in Easington, the former County Durham colliery village, studied architecture in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He lost his right foot after unsuccessful surgery on an ankle following a motorcross accident. “A ramp collapsed that I was jumping the bike from; I was 25 and I had little choice but to opt to lose the foot,” he says. “It changed my outlook on life really.”

He played Malcus, a soldier, in the 2012 Mystery Plays after moving to York last year. “My mother lives in Darlington and I wanted to be close to her and I chose a new start in York, where I already had good friends,” he says.

Looking to the future, Lee says: “I really hope that I can stay in, absorb and represent this great city through my art and, well, I hope people get along to Victor J’s and have an opinion on my work.”