SPOTLIGHT ON: Painter / Visual Artist - Linda Deg Lee

Linda Deg Lee has a symbiotic relationship with nature that is characterized in her work as an investigation of the world around her that is equally capable of focusing attention on something as minute as a cell and as vast as a prairie landscape. Deg Lee understands that often it's only a difference in scale that separates the one from the other. She has spent a great amount of time observing the nuances of the subjects of her paintings. The objective is not to faithfully replicate the details of the subject at hand, but to bring forth its spirit and energy and its relationship to its time and space. Deg Lee achieves this by using a combination of drawing and painting that retains the basic construction or framework of (for example) a cellular organism - while at the same time breathing life into it through her skillful use of line, form, color, and texture. While pastels have been her medium of choice for many years - more recent works find her returning to oil paints and pigments. Her newest paintings are being executed on a much larger scale, magnifying the already powerful visual impact of her imagery. It will be exciting to see the results once the works are presented in future exhibitions.
--James Michael Lawrence

Excerpts from Linda Deg Lee's artist statement:

"My paintings explore the fundamental patterns and structures found in nature. Reduced to their simplest forms, the cell and the web form a meta-pattern so basic that it is be found in complex relationships from vascular systems to solar systems. My inspiration comes from observing plant and leaf forms, one-celled organisms, streambeds, and rock formations.
     The matrixes are formed by developing a flowing latticework of cells and paths that expand and envelop the canvas or support. These webs confine and define the cells that carry color and further shape the growth. The patterns become evermore complex and develop primal structures within the confines of the canvas.
     I see the world in terms of these basic patterns and work to articulate this ongoing, ever-changing process that gives meaning and substance to the wholeness of life."

Linda Deg Lee's Homepage On mnartists.org
For more information about the artist and to view works in her on-line gallery.

Mixed Media