HELENA — Jae Won Lee is a ceramic artist who's traveled the world sharing her art, and her most recent stop is here in Helena at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.
Lee was a previous artist in residence at "The Bray" back in 1995 and 1996.
The Bray recently invited her back, giving her a private studio space near the Bray's other resident artists. Together, they share art, ideas, and ways to advance working with clay and ceramics.
"I am really happy to be back and to see all this develop highly established facility and the foundation and then meeting all these wonderful staff and then artists," said Lee.
Lee has been a professor at Michigan State University for 25 years.
She came to the United States from Korea during her junior year in college, and she tells me at that time she didn't have art on her radar.
"I started college again and then I wasn't studying art. I was a psych major, and I went to school for psychology in l.a. And then it's a long story, a long path. And then I found art," said Lee.
That art has taken across the United States, and around the world.
Lee returns to The Bray with nearly three decades of experience under her belt.
A fresh focus and a new direction for her art, experimenting with new ideas.
"When I come here, I'm so happy I'm making something great. But I am playing, I am experimenting. I'm testing my new ideas so it will take another couple years to resolve," said Lee, "But I'm beginning again for a new, new direction. So it's been wonderful and I'm very thankful to Archie Bray Foundation."
