The Chicken Man

But Ernest Lee isn’t technically overlooked. At least his artwork isn’t.

If you drive down Huger Street just past Gervais, you have probably seen his mobile trailer parked on the side of the road. “All my exes live in Texas. Now I live in SC” is fancifully painted on the side. He avoids questions surrounding the meaning behind that quote, possibly because he’s too busy laughing to himself about it.

Has he been to Texas? No. But he has been to Chicago, Florida and other southern states and is proud to tell you so. Although born in Edgefield, Lee takes his curbside art show on the road. He has two subjects: a Palmetto tree and a Gamecock. Except the Gamecock has breasts and long legs, and sometimes carries a purse and wears a dress. For this reason, Ernest says he is widely known as the “Chicken Man” and has local celebrity status.

“You haven’t heard of the Chicken Man? Everybody’s heard of the Chicken Man. You’ve seen me before ain’t you?!”

It was a surprise to him that I hadn’t. Lee has had his artwork shown in the Columbia Visitors Center, featured at the South Carolina Book Festival, and displayed at the House of Ahhs in Beaufort. If you wander around the offices of some USC faculty, you will likely find a painting of his chicken hanging colorfully on the wall.

The Chicken Man will willingly allow you to mosey around the inside of his mobile cart, though you’ll have little room to take more than a few steps in. On the right hangs a faded poster of him and his 12-year old son, the kind of picture you take in the booths at the mall that print your photo on the spot. He speaks little of his past but is forthright in mentioning the number of girlfriends he’s had. He is currently single, however.

And quite the businessman. Lee appeals to Clemson Tiger fans: in the far end of his gallery is a painting of a tiger choking a gamecock. He was hesitant to allow me to take a picture of his orange-spirited paintings, but I told him it wouldn’t get him into any trouble.

If you’re doubtful that anyone selling art painted on used, unsanded plywood would be recognizable in the city of Columbia, you’re not the only one. A roll of toilet paper is the only cloth he needs to wipe his brushes and clean his hands. But art was something the Chicken Man knew he wanted to dedicate the rest of his life to, a passion that developed since before he can remember. He paints more than just feminine chickens and palm trees, however. Lee has a series of paintings dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr., a “Before 1968” and “After 1968”, depicting the assassination of the civil rights leader. Though the chicken and palm tree are his most popular subjects, he also paints scenes of city life. These are shown—“For Display Only”—next to his mobile gallery, along with a photograph of Elvis Presley.

Why Elvis?

“The ladies love him. They like to see him there.”

“In that case, you might want to move the pro-Clemson Tiger painting somewhere else. That might not catch on with some ladies, ” I responded.