A Multidisciplinary Approach to Art as Social Practice
WHO I AM:
Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science” (Einstein 1931). Just as this quote exists at the intersection of art and science, so do I. My name is Annette S. Lee, I am mixed-race Lakota, Irish, and Chinese. My communities are Ojibwe and D(L)akota. I grew up in St. Louis Missouri with stars and art always in my blood. I am often asked, “What came first astronomy or art?” my reply is, “Neither and both.”
Ever since I can remember I have had spirit dreams with the stars. What came first is a clear, strong, and colorful memory that we came from the stars. Memory of relationship came first. Clearly the stars were my oldest living relatives.
WHY DO I MAKE ART:
I have always loved the stars, but I also really liked math. The patterns in the numbers were like a reprieve from the chaos and uncertainty of a bumpy childhood. In math class there were problems that could be solved, relationships that followed a logical order, a crystalline structure that was very welcoming. When I started my first year at U.C. Berkeley I told everyone that I was going to double major in Art and Astronomy. A common reply is to ask if I opened the class catalog and just picked the first two majors. Over three decades later, I find myself the proud owner of five college degrees, two in Art and three in Science. Many times I was told ‘to just pick one’ and that it was not possible to do both, that art had to be a hobby. This was not an option for me. My practice of art closely parallels a spiritual practice. It is my lifeline.
WHAT ARE MY ARTISTIC FORMS:
My MFA thesis show at Yale School of Art was called “Star Medicine” (2000). These were a series of delicately layered oil paintings on canvas. I have always had a fondness for drawing. It’s like practicing stillness. Good rewards come of it, but it is slow and quiet, it takes discipline. My artistic form varies. I started out in 2-d art, trained as a painter, then moving into mixed media, now my art has evolved to have many layers to it. Strongly based in process and narrative. More recently my art forms have evolved into digital storytelling videos, spoken word art, animation, graphic design, sequential art, museum exhibits, and interactive design.
THE BIG PICTURE:
Increasingly my work as a visual artist intersects social justice. It is about embracing the complexity of our evolving human experience and being a change-maker. I strive to create transformative communities responding to and generating paradigmatic shifts at the intersection of art-science-culture. Very few people in the world have this skill set and the courage to make these connections. My work embraces the complexity of our human experience and seeks to empower those voices that have not been elevated, but have been dismissed. The future depends on us. In this way, art is a both parallel to spiritual practice but also through critical study and creative practice questions centers of power. Digital storytelling to social justice, art encapsulates all.
Currently Annette is a Professor of Astronomy & Physics at St. Cloud State University (SCSU), an Honorary/Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in the Centre for Astrophysics, an Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, and a Professional Visual Artist.