artist statement

In my paintings and drawings, I use a process of intuitive, controlled doodling to create line clusters. These clusters grow in an organic fashion and in relationship to lines I have already drawn. The resulting masses of line clusters evoke organic forms (like hair, muscles, and fungi), natural systems such as waves and wind currents, geological strata, and topographical maps. To me, the masses convey a range of entities or characters. I think of them as visual metaphors for social relationships and emotional states.

I am inspired by non-Western art—particularly Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan art—as well as cartoons and urban graphics. Underlying the imagery of my work is the idea of hair as a typically feminine characteristic, a metaphor of life energy and vanity, with associations ranging from strength to grace to fear.

I develop each image until I feel it has curiosity and tension, when the forms suggest but do not declare their identities or purpose.
– deanna lee

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