Deanna C. Lee

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about the hair drawings and paintings

These works are based on accumulations of lines and linear motifs.

In the drawings, I combine motifs of clouds, waves, and hair from traditional Asian art and 1960s hairstyling manuals. With these motifs of ephemeral or fluid substances, I build enigmatic forms that seem to be solid or self-contained. As I make visual rhymes of the motifs, I muse on their connotations.

In the paintings, I draw clusters of lines in a process of controlled doodling. These clusters accumulate to form masses that evoke hair, muscles, fungi, waves, or currents. To me, the masses function as entities or characters that serve different roles in each work. 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 the drawings and paintings is the idea of hair as a typically feminine characteristic, one often viewed with ambivalence and with associations ranging from strength to grace to fear.

My goal is to arrive at a state of curiosity and tension in each work, where the forms suggest but do not declare their identities or purpose.