Jim Lee received a M.F.A. in printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980. A draughtsman, printmaker and book artist, landscape is at the core of his work. He often begins a series with on-site drawings and other visual research, and from these develops his color reduction woodcut prints. Recent work has been based on the west coast of Ireland, Nova Scotia, Canada, and New England. He is also very interested in the people who inhabit these regions, often weaving references to their history, culture and legend into his work.
In 1978 he established Blue Moon Press, his private press, to occasionally issue limited edition books. These letterpress books develop out of his other work in various print series and sometimes publish the work of contemporary writers and poets. He designs and prints these books, which feature his original woodcuts.
His recent solo and two person exhibitions include: Jim Lee/Jane Goldman, Bromer Gallery, Boston, MA; Jim Lee: Stone, Water, Wood, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK, Jim Lee: The Ireland Drawings, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT.
Jim Lee has been included in many national and international group print and artist’s book exhibitions. Recent exhibitions include:
Boston Printmakers 2017 North American Print Biennial, Lesley University, MA.
Yinchuan Conversation: Chinese and American Printmakers, Yinchuan Art Center, Ningxia Province, China, 2016
Imprint One 2016, National Invitational Print Biennial, Austin, TX
Stand Out Prints, International Juried Print Exhibition, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, MN, 2016
National Artists’ Book Juried Exhibition, Sebastopol Art Center, CA, 2016
Myths & Legends International Artist’s Book Show, A6 Gallery, Bend, OR, 2015
Hand Pulled: The Current Practice in Printmaking, On Site: Brooklyn, NY, 2015;
Atlanta Print Biennial International Juried Exhibition, Kai Lin Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 2017 & 2016
IPCNY New Prints, 2014 & 2013, NY, NY
His collections include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Portrait Gallery, The Getty Art Center, The Boston Athenaeum, The Wadsworth Athenaeum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Fine Arts-Boston, The Guangdong Museum of Fine Arts-Chongqing, China, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art; the rare books and special collections departments of The Boston Public Library, The New York Public Library, Harvard University, Yale University, and University of San Francisco, among others.
He has taught printmaking, drawing and book arts at the Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT since 1982.
Statement: I am a draughtsman, printmaker and occasional book artist. Since the early 1990’s landscape has been at the core of my work. I use the sense of place to develop metaphors for states of mind in my own personal mythos. The way light, color and space develop mood is very important to me. But I am also very concerned with the history and culture of the people who inhabit these places, and often include various references to them. I am interested in legend and lore, humor and the mythic strangeness that haunts the places I depict.
Recent series of work have been based on the lonely west coast of Ireland, the island of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and the Canadian Maritimes, and northern Maine, all locations that have that mysterious sense of place. In the mid-1990’s I worked on a series about the Connecticut River for a number of years. Growing up in the mid-west and now living in New England I see this region with especially open eyes.
My work usually begins on-site with drawings and recently watercolors. I am always interested in the graphic aspect of the image and build up the surface with complex networks of line. Sometimes these are finished works in themselves, and other times they serve as visual documentation to work from later. I usually take photographs of the sites to help develop work in the studio.
From this visual material I produce my prints - most often color reduction woodcuts, on a different scale and with re-interpreted compositions. These develop slowly and require many press runs to complete. Usually the color is built up through successive layering of a single block in the reduction technique, but some prints require multiple blocks as well. It all takes a lot of time.
In creating the prints the reductive process of carving the woodblocks requires their destruction. I find this to be a potent metaphor for all of life.
When I see the end of a series approaching I sometimes find that a limited edition book is a good way to sum up the ideas I have been developing. I produce these books as independent works that often combine letterpress texts with my woodcut imagery and are designed to amplify the ideas through their physical structure. I am the designer, printer and often the binder, and I issue them through Blue Moon Press, my private press. These books get done about once in a blue moon.
My ultimate goal as an artist is to take in and interpret the mysterious world we live in, with all of its strangeness and wonder.
Contact: jimlee5@cox.net
