STATEMENT (Part I) : How I got to France
About ten years ago I started having thoughts of living abroad. My desire to have a foreign adventure was resurfacing big time. I made a goal that I would turn sixty overseas, preferably in a French speaking country. I targeted the Peace Corps. I figured the US government could help me realize my “birthday” plans in several years. In early 2019, I visited a local Peace Corps office. I had many questions, but number one on my list was, “Am I too old to be a Peace Corps Volunteer at my age (55)?”. The answer was, “No, you’d be a great candidate!”. Alas, I only had two weeks to nurse this dream as Covid struck. The big shut down ended my dream,… but then I pivoted. Why not just move to France? I had always wanted to live abroad, to live in a French speaking country. I had history and connections in the south of France since 1982. We go way back, France and I. So the question I have entertained most of my life was about to begin. I had 2+ years of “Covid down time” to do the research.
The visa process was daunting, but somehow the spirit guides got me over the finish line. As I write this, next week will make my three year anniversary living in Provence. I don’t know why it took me so long, but selling all my possessions and all my art to fund a new life here was worth it.
This statement is not about my process or my work. It’s about gratitude. The decisions I made of choosing the rocky road, the road with no map. The artist path … risky, adventurous, scary, fulfilling.
Maria Lee August 2025 Lacoste, France
STATEMENT (Part II) : Puzzling it together
All my life I have struggled to summarize what my work is about. The confusion lies in the fact that I am a muti-disciplinary artist. Not only do I use mixed media, but the media I use shifts from series to series. Plus, I’m always shifting into a new series. In the past several years I have painted still lifes in oils, made artists books, exhibited a series of ink landscapes, returened to the still life and also produced a series of monotypes. I shift subject and themes from series to series and even stylistically I shift techniques depending on the media. For example, my oil still lifes are of a traditional realism style. I look to Vermeer, Morandi, Manet, Chardin. My works in ink, watercolor and gouche paintings are usually a response to the landscape or light on the landscape. They feel rather “oriental” in the brushwork, which is loose and impressionistic. I admire the bravado of Sargeant and Homer watercolors and the mastery of color of Monet.
In my graphic work of printmaking and book arts, my style looks totally different. My print work can be very graphic. The subject matter is often about personal events. My handmade books combine text and imagery and expresses my political views. Some people are surprised that I make prints in a style that looks so different from my still life “realism”. I once was called “schizophrenic”, or at least that is the word I heard in my head, by a well known local painter after he saw my painting and printwork side by side. Even though I still cannot sort out the throughline of my work, I have decided to at least embrace my technical proficiency AND my ability to express a variety of subjects (nature, politics, storytelling) as central to who I am, how and what I create.
Maria
725 Chemin des Contards, 84480 Lacoste, FRANCE
EDUCATION
MFA printmaking, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 2002 Certificate, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1991 Lacoste School of the Arts in France, Lacoste Fall, 1982 BFA University of Hawaii-Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 1984
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Saratoga, WY, 2011 Tucson Pima Arts Council Mini Grant, Tucson, AZ 2007 & 2004 Stonehouse Residenct for Contemporary Arts, Miramonte, CA, 2006 Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA, 2005 Jentel Foundation, Banner, WY, 2003 MFA Fellow Scholarship, University of Arizona, Tucson, 2001 Medici Scholar Award, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 2000 J. Henry Scheidt Memorial Traveling Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1991
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Vingt-huit, with Esther Sobin and Pilar Loizaga, Maison de la Truffe, Ménerbes, France, 2025 Art Lacoste Annual Exhibition, Lacoste, France, 2023, 2025 Le Goûter, Chez Mechtild, Goult, France, 2024 k. Merveille Haiku / m. Lee Tableaux, La Cure, Lacoste, France 2023. Art Lacoste, Annual Exhibition, Lacoste, France, 2023 [ih - maj - in], The Poetry Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 2022 Narratives of the Possible: Artists’ Books, invitational, Laramie County Library, Cheyenne, WY, 2021 Fast Forward, Light Art Space Gallery, Silver City, NM, 2020 Arizona Printmaker’s Invitational, Davis Dominguez Gallery, Tucson, AZ, 2020 It’s Time to be Fearless, Tiny Town Gallery, Tucson, AZ, 2018 Print, Printed, Printing, Highlands University New Mexico, Las Vegas, NM, 2019 Woke, Carr-Rhoads Church House, Tucson, AZ, 2018 Amplify & Multiply, printed activist ephemera, I.D.E.A. at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, 2017 Allies, with Jo Andersen, Dragonfly Gallery, Tucson, AZ, 2016 About Books, Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery, Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ, 2015
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Conservation Technician, Western Archaeological and Conservation Center, National Parks Service, Tucson, AZ, 2000-2022 Adjunct Art Professor, Pima Community College, drawing, printmaking, bookarts, Tucson, AZ, 2002-2019. Adjunct Art Professor, printmaking, Yavapai College, Prescott, AZ, 2014-2015 Letterpress Lab Tech, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 2010-2019 Printmaking Professor, Lacoste School of the Arts in France, Bard College, Lacoste, France, 1997. Apprentice Coordinator, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, 1993-1996