Mentor: The Unknown Work of Nancy Lee

Form/Space Atelier Program for May 2008

Show Title: Mentor: The Unknown Work of Nancy Lee

Show Duration: May 9-June 8

Opening Reception: May 9, 6-10PM

Seattle artist and much-loved middle-school art teacher Nancy Lee died in 1990, leaving behind a fascinating but virtually unknown body of work. Following the death of her widower, Dr. Robert C. Lee, in 2006, a large number of pieces by the artist were discovered while the Lees’ home of many years was being cleared of their belongings. Mentor: The Unknown Work of Nancy Lee represents a journey by a living artist, Paul D. Natkin, into the work of a deceased artist, Lee, who was his long-time family friend and early mentor. The several works by Lee presented in this show exemplify her passion for a wide variety of materials, from the durable to the ephemeral—including canvas, watercolor paper, paper towels, scrap metal, gauze, cellophane, plywood, watercolor, oil paint, house paint, sticks, clay and mud—and her very intuitive, stream-of-consciousness approach to image-making. The pieces by Lee are shown side by side with copies of biographical documentation and written ruminations on her work by Natkin.