John Lee

"...searching for and collecting art books has been a passion of mine for many years. I have collected many books on painters that inspire and excite me, and I constantly share these books with my students in the classroom."

"The two books I have included are each one of multiple copies of the same book that I have cherished since the beginning of my painting studies...I have highlighted certain passages, including words of each artist, that have been very meaningful to ome and helped to shape my thinking about painting..."

"The larger painting is a portrait of Jean Stevens (my mother) that was painted by Henry Hensche in 1977. The painting has been in my family home since the time that it was painted. Hensche was a painter who was part of a tradition of American painting that is interested in seeing the world via light and color relationships.

I have long been interested in this tradition of painting, and my first teacher, Don Lee (also my father), pushed these ideas of color and light in his foundation-level painting courses. The two smaller paintings were made by Don Lee in recent years, and he otherwise makes abstract paintings."