Rachelle Lee

Rachelle Lee is an artist based in Montgomery County, MD. After pausing her education to treat mental illness, she began pursuing an AFA degree at Montgomery College Rockville, MD in 2021. There, she was awarded three merit scholarships recognizing the strength of her academic excellence and mixed media portfolio. Lee exhibited in the 2021 online Tiny Art Show and the 2023 Paint the Town Show in Kensington, MD. She is also an active member of the Montgomery College Student Art League, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and Montgomery Art Association.

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Artist Statement

My work preserves moments of persistence into soothing imagery. Resilience is vital to me as an artist with mental illness as I find it healing to appreciate nature, explore psychology, and balance hope and sadness in my work. By creating art, I voice silent moments of being a queer Korean American with mental illness. I ultimately hope my voice trickles into the wave of Asian American artists who are now becoming the representation I lacked while growing up.

My process relies on referencing my visual memory and photography to translate an amalgam of my thoughts into various media. Though I experiment with the limits of a broad range of media, I always return to charcoal; it is my fondest and most familiar medium. My charcoal drawings span no larger than 24 inches. In making smaller work, I am more intimately involved and each line is more impactful. My fingertips are often my most-used but least detectable tool and my eyes carefully consider every inch of a page. In making my studio practice meticulously mindful, my art has become my source of solace and how I cultivate resilience in my life.

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

 Education

2024 Pending Associate of Art

Montgomery College; Rockville, MD

Technical Skills

Adobe: Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere Pro

Microsoft: Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Excel

Clip Studio Paint Pro

Exhibitions

2023 Paint the Town: Student Invitational

 Kensington Armory; Kensington, MD

2022 Annual Student Exhibition

Sarah Silberman Gallery; Rockville, MD

2021 Tiny Art Show

Shop 53; La Plata, MD

Languages and Travel

Intermediate Korean

Beginner Japanese

2016 Exploring cultural heritage in South Korea

Awards

2023 Dr. Harry Hardin Jr. Academic Excellence Award

Montgomery College; Rockville, MD

2022  - 2023 Dean’s List

Montgomery College; Rockville, MD

2022 Montgomery College Alumni Association Scholarship

Montgomery College; Rockville, MD

2021 - 2022 Rockville Art Department Endowed Scholarship

Montgomery College; Rockville, MD

Organizations and Programs

2023 Rockville Student Art League

Montgomery College; Rockville, MD

2023 Montgomery Art Association

 Kensington, MD

2022 Alumni Association Mentoring Program

Montgomery College; Rockville, MD

2021  - 2023 Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society

Montgomery College; Rockville, MD