Meet the artist
Name: Cameron Lee
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Where are you from and where do you live? I was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. I attended school both in Maryland and D.C. until the end of high school, and now I live in New York and attend Columbia University, where I am a rising junior.
What mediums do you typically work with? Why? I typically work with graphite and charcoal. I lean towards these mediums because I usually create art in a smaller sketchbook rather than on a canvas or a bigger sheet of paper, and graphite and charcoal are more suited to the type of drawings I create. I am interested in portraiture and illustration, and I find it most comfortable to work on a small scale in a sketchbook with materials that are easy to use and easy to pack away. However, my exploration of new mediums has led me to try different styles of art. I have recently been more regularly exploring marker, colored pencil, watercolor, and ink in an attempt to broaden my horizons and diversify my art, and the photos I provided represent my most recent explorative work.
What responsibilities, if any, do you take on as a creator? I don’t typically see myself as taking on responsibilities in my everyday art, which resides in a private sketchbook and is mostly for myself and my personal growth. However, I was working for the past few weeks on a large drawing for class that tells a different story. It is probably the biggest drawing I’ve ever done, and I wanted to explore voyeurism and sexuality, mainly related to the exoticization of black women’s bodies in modern media. I definitely feel as if I took on some responsibilities in this piece, given the subject matter and the fact that I represented a black woman in a very vulnerable, seductive way. I wanted to do the best I could to make my message explicit, or at least create a piece that allows for relevant and thought-provoking interpretations.
What do you want your audience to know about you and/or your art? I want my audience to know that I’m still learning about myself as a person and that I am continually growing, and that my art reflects that. My “style” is always shifting, and part of the reason I love sketchbooks so much is that they are incredibly freeing and leave me space for exploration.
What are your hopes for the future? My hopes for my future as an artist are to develop my style further and find a routine and set of materials that compliment my intentions and work for what I want to do with my art. I also hope to incorporate art into my future career (I am majoring in Creative Writing and hope to do something in the editing/publishing/writing world) and keep it in my life, because I have always loved creating and want to be able to create forever. I also hope to be able to make an impact with my art. Art always profoundly affects me, both when I create it and when I view other people's works, and I want to be able to do the same for other people.
Is there anything else you would like to share? I am so happy to be a part of this project! I am a huge proponent of creativity and creative fields, and I think everyone should try to express themselves creatively, whether that be through art, writing, or something else. I am also glad that Mikala is curating this space for black women, nonbinary, and gender fluid people to share their work, because I have never been exposed to a space like it for this specific demographic, and it is a wonderful endeavor.