Hayoon Jay Lee is a New York based interdisciplinary artist who is known for working with rice and rice-related motifs, as well as organic and biomorphic forms.  She incorporates this imagery into paintings, sculptures, installations, performances, and videos. Many of her works are inspired by feminist viewpoints and seek to raise social consciousness and encourage reflection upon existential issues.

“When I was in school at the Maryland Institute College of Art I had many great feminist professors who taught me the meaning of human rights and the feminist point of view in artmaking and life.  It’s really hard to pinpoint one influence because I have many female heroes such as Comfort Women, female and male artists as well, organizations like NAWA, AIR gallery, and people around me.”

 

Lee was born in Deagu, South Korea.  She earned BFA and MFA degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). She received a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Award and a best-in-show distinction at the 14th International Exhibition at the SoHo 20 Gallery in Chelsea, NY.

Lee has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Korean Cultural Center (Beijing), the University of Kraków, The Jamaica Art Center & King Manor Museum, Gwangju Museum of Art, the Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts, The United Nations Gallery, ArtWalk NY: Coalition for the Homeless, Colby-Sawyer College, and Henan Museum.

Her work can be found in the collections of the Zimmerli Art Museum; Hunan Museum; Gwangju Museum of Art; Queensborough Community College; Hollis Taggart Gallery; Beijing Studio Center, and in many private collections.

 

Interview with Anjali Singh

Interview with Jonathan Goodman

It is a great pleasure to feature in NAWA NOW’s Shout Outs, Florida Chapter President Roberta Millman-Ide. She serves as a perfect example of our exceptional NAWA members, who have done invaluable work to help the organization as well as continuing with their own wonderful creations. SB)

Roberta Millman-Ide has made Florida her home since 2014. Prior to that she lived in Northern New Jersey for just over 20 years. During that time, she would spend much of her time in New York City for both fun and work. A native to Southern California, she spent a portion of her earliest years in Hawaii. She has enjoyed traveling everywhere from Tahiti to Mexico, Central America, into Canada and through parts of Europe, Israel and Great Britain.

These travels have all had a great influence on her artistic creations. She graduated from California State University, Long Beach in 1982, with a BFA in Advertising Design and a minor in Marketing (with a focus on Communications). While spending the next decade working as Art Director for two prestigious advertising agencies in Southern California, she continued her art education at the Art Center in Pasadena.

In 1992, upon her arrival in New Jersey, she started her own graphic/advertising design company “another bright IDEa, production”.  In addition to her design work, she continued her artwork, both on canvas as well as in a multitude of mediums. She has been a member of multiple art organizations.

In Spring of 2010, she was juried into the National Association of Women Artists where she volunteered to serve on the Exhibitions Committee and was also a juror. Later (not long after moving to Florida) she became the Vice President of the Florida Chapter. She went on to become President of the National Association of Women Artists’ Florida Chapter and has continued to serve in this role since 2017. She has created a vital chapter by expanding their exhibitions throughout the State of Florida. And this was made possible by establishing a more inclusive NAWAFL Board with coordinators from all over the state, as meetings were done online instead of at a physical location. This also made the Florida Chapter one that not only survived but really thrived throughout the venue closures and overall ‘shelter in place’ regulations during the 2020 pandemic, as they expanded these online meetings to include exhibits, and presentations that still continue to our present day.

Roberta divides her time to also create websites for artists and art organizations as well as teaching, giving Corporate Team Building Workshops through Collaborative Art. She devotes all of her time, in between, to create her fine art. Her work is narrative as she views Art to be a valuable source of communication and storytelling. She has created her own unique style by a fusion of Conceptual, Illustrative and Contemporary Representation blended onto a single canvas in multiple mediums.

“I come from a long history of storytellers in my family. And I continue this tradition through the visual arts. I use my art as an extension to my voice to convey emotions, concepts, political statements. The colors and mediums that I incorporate into my works are purposely selected to best interpret my subject and message. And yet my images leave just enough to invite the viewer to elaborate and finish the story in their own words. My greatest joy is when I have heard (or overheard) the viewer say that my art has powerfully or emotionally touched them as it speaks to their own life experiences.”

She is both a National and International Exhibiting Artist.  Her work can be found in galleries, boutiques and in private collections throughout the United States and in other parts of the world.

I define myself as a portrait painter. Why portraits? It goes back to when I worked as a photographer for educational materials, most of my working life. I was often looking for models, people to play parts in the stories I photographed. I would find myself staring at people’s faces in the subway, in the street. Would he, she be a good model? In the ‘70s I took a portrait course with Phillipe Halsman, the photographer. He was a good teacher, and I did well in his class. Years later, when I was teaching art in Bronx High schools, I started painting and thought about doing a series of portraits of these young people, whose struggles I became privy to. I painted thirteen portraits of Latino kids. After that I was captivated.

For me, painting portraits is a slow process. It takes me time to see the details needed to capture the likeness and character of my subject. It requires careful observation of how and where the light falls on their facial structures. While I am painting, I am one with the person, and there is an exhilaration that comes from achieving this intimacy and discovering, little by little, the sitter’s features and what elements of their character are showing in their expression.

I believe that in a portrait, every human face can look beautiful. The job starts by carefully finding the most pleasing angle and then surrounding it with a composition that enhances the personality of the subject. My job is to find that beauty and show it to the viewer.

“How do I change my life?”

I think over again my small adventures, my fears – those small ones that seemed so big. For all the vital things I had to get and reach. And yet there is only one great thing. The only thing. To live. To see the great day that dawns and the light that fills the world.

I remember that the one constant thing in my life is change. The more we resist it, the tougher our life becomes. Instead of avoiding it, ask how you can change your life to work with the changes happening around you. We are surrounded by change, and it is the one thing that has the most dramatic impact on our lives. There is no avoiding it because it will find you, challenge you, and force you to reconsider how you live your life.

Change can come into our lives as a result of crisis, choice, or chance. In any situation, we are faced with having to make a choice. Do we make the change or not? We cannot avoid unexpected events in our lives. What we can control is how we choose to respond to them. It is our power of choice that enables us to activate positive change in our lives. Acting on our power of choice provides us with the opportunity to change our lives for the better. The more opportunities we accept, the more fulfilled and happier our lives become. I have learned that being flexible and embracing change is how I activate positive opportunities in my life.

One of my patrons chartered a private plane and flew me to the Michigan Upper Peninsula. I lived and worked in the patron’s cabin in the middle of 4,000 acres of the hardwood forest during the fall season. I walked and explored the property, gaining strength from nature. Wading through the deep undergrowth and tall grasses is an incredible opportunity to feel a oneness with the organic world. Seeing the magnitude of hardwood trees ablaze in yellows, oranges, reds and deep purples at such a grand scale is an incredible sight to behold. During this time, I painted and sketched to the rhythms of my environment. When I returned to my studio I created Over the river and through the woods to reflect the magic of this incredible location.

While on fellowship at the Virginia Center of Creative Arts, Amherst Virginia, for several months I witnessed the Smoky Mountains’ winter splendor. Morning sunrises were misty, soft, ethereal, and delicate. The crisp air in the morning resounded through the paths on my way to my studio. Swinging my lunchbox, I walked, pondering the landscape and contemplating what was in store for the morning. The low fog ebbing over the hills and valleys offered a sense of quiet and connection.

Moonglow picnic and lunchbox swing is a two-sided monolithic painting that will be housed in a hardwood frame. Side one represents my witness to the change of light during the quiet, crisp morning sunrise, watching the world wake up. Side two represents my journey back to the art center as the evening arrived. The sunsets were brilliant, the majestic mountains were deep blues and purples as the fog began its decent into the region. I had a special vantage point near the cows and barns where I would go to watch the sunset and decompress from the day working in the studio. The mountains were always deep blues and purples as the mist rolled in.

Currently, I reside and work in an off-grid solar powered home and studio on over 100 acres of peaceful land in the mountains of southern Colorado. Surrounded by the natural environment feeds my spiritual soul, centers and grounds my body, and inspires my artwork. I am fascinated by how life changes from day to day in the natural world.
Currently, I am continuing my work on several series of monolithic paintings exploring color and space from the weather patterns, environmental rhythms, and the rising and setting of the sun, stars, and moon each day.

Living at the end of the Rocky Mountain range, I have the privilege of sitting on a mountain at 6,800 feet elevation. A rare opportunity to see the world from a whole new vantage point. Southern exposure and views of both the mountains and the plains is both dramatic and inspiring. This 2-sided piece is inspired by the sunrise from this vantage during Spring and Summer seasons. Birds take flight and sing their songs, waking up the world. The sky is illuminated in reds, oranges, and yellows as the sunlight glows with a sense of renewal and a daily fresh start.

Upcoming exhibitions include Manitou Center of the Arts, Manitou Springs, Colorado and Site Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, Juror Gail Levin Whitney Museum. Recent awards: Half the Sky Social Practices, LuXun Academy, Shenyang, China. Juror- Alma Ruiz, curator LA Museum of Art; CSArts Colorado Artist, Denver Botanic Gardens and Boulder Museum of Contemporary Arts. T’Alyne is a Founding Member of Eyelounge, a Contemporary Art Space – http://www.eyelounge.com. She is an alumnus of Arizona State University, BA, BFA, MFA and the University of Colorado, Denver.MA Memberships include Woman’s Caucus for Art, Michigan and Colorado and NAWA.

YOUTUBE-
T’Alyne, Visiting Artist, Webb School- Knoxville, Tennessee – https://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=vPKIus-B_0QYOUTUBE
T’Alyne in the Mines – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auNo5aDDG20