Deanna Lee's Studio News

I hope that this letter finds you, and those for whom you care, in good health and spirits.
Following my previous letter, written at the beginning of the COVID-19 era in New York City, I was honored to be asked by the blog Art Spiel to contribute to its timely and generous series, "Artists on Coping."
To get a sense of my life and state of mind during March and April, and glimpse some of my works, please see the interview, which was published in May:  https://artspiel.org/artists-on-coping-deanna-lee/

Some of you may know that I used to be an avid writer of lengthy (perhaps rambling) letters, until my mid-20s, when email became the standard method of communication. Recent upheaval in our world has led to a resurgence of attention toward the postal service and to the tradition of mail art, of which I have long been a fan.
Currently I am participating in a few mail-art projects, initiated by fellow artists. Please let me know if you would like to join me in a project, by either collaborating on the creation of artworks or simply exchanging small, mailable works of art.

More info can be found via these Instagram hashtags: 
#artistsfortheusps
#uspsartproject
#MailArtChainofProtection
 

I am pleased that two of my works are currently featured in the online exhibition "Lost in Isolation,” organized by the Void Collective, based in the UK.

https://www.void-collective.com/exhibitions/lost-in-isolation

First Voice Graph Drawing; 2017; ink, gouache, and marker on paper; 24 x 35 inches. This work was made after a rare viral infection paralyzed my left vocal fold and left me without a voice for three months. The drawing is based on a diagnostic graph of my voice, obtained during a clinical evaluation. My experience was one of profound isolation, anxiety, and despair, but it brought me a deeper understanding and appreciation of vocal presence as signifying one’s status as a fellow living creature.

Night Row 3; 2017; ink on paper; 7 × 10 inches. This is one drawing in a series based on my experience of an expedition on the Usumacinta River in southern Mexico, with references to the qualities of the atmosphere and sonic environment. At night, drifting, our group in three small boats was the only human presence on the river.

The three residency programs that had invited me to participate this year have been cancelled, but I remain hopeful that they will resume once conditions for traveling and gathering are more reliably safe. While I really look forward to continuing my site-specific work at these residencies (located at the extremes of both US coasts), for now I am quite happy to remain working in my Ridgewood, Queens, studio, which has been a source of great comfort for the past few months.

Here is a recent work, Vertigo Drawing 1, developed from rubbings and tracings of walls in my former studio on Eagle Street in Brooklyn, a building that was demolished for the construction of luxury housing. (A better image will be achievable once it is safer to move about NYC, but I impatiently wanted to share this now.) The work is made of ink on paper and measures about 5.5 feet by 18 inches. It is one in a series that refers to traditional East Asian ink paintings and my distance from that lineage.

As always, I welcome your inquiries and comments.
Thanks for your continued interest and support, please keep in touch, and stay well.

Best regards,

Deanna