Daughters
8 x 8.5” closed, 17” wide open; pen, crayon rubbing, and natural dyes on hanji, indigo-dyed thread; variable edition of 10
“I barely hesitated to participate in this project when asked, but then wondered for months if I had made the right decision as I carried hanji, the paper that constitutes it, from Seoul to Jeonju to Jeju to Seoul to Yangpyeong to Seoul before hand-carrying it back to the US. I wanted to honor my female ancestors who were and are so much tougher than I will ever be, by putting their names into the world, and including as many Korean women in the process as possible.”
Aimee Lee is an artist, papermaker, writer, and the leading hanji researcher and practitioner in North America. Her Fulbright research on Korean paper led to her award-winning book Hanji Unfurled (The Legacy Press) and the first US hanji studio in Cleveland. Her artwork resides in collections that include the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Stanford University, UCLA, and Yale University. She has shown at the Fuller Craft Museum, Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, Korean Cultural Service (NYC) and Korean Cultural Center (D.C.). Her work has appeared in The Korea Times,The New York Times, The Plain Dealer, KBS World Radio, PBS, VOA, and CNN’s Great Big Story.
Aimee has taught and lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, Asian Art Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Oberlin College, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Mills College, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, Haystack Mountain School ofCrafts, and Penland School of Crafts. Funders include the US Fulbright Program, Korea Fulbright Foundation, John Anson Kittredge Fund, American Folklore Society, and the Center for Craft. She creates and expands studios to accommodate Korean and East Asian papermaking, travels the world to share her artwork and expertise, and serves her region as an Ohio Arts Council Heritage Fellow.