EJ Lee shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
EJ, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
My first 90 minutes of the day, I’m making breakfast, and having my first cup of coffee while listening to an audio book. It feels like the calm before the potential chaos of the day and I can mentally plan and prepare for the day ahead.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is EJ Lee I am an interdisciplinary mixed media collage artist in Baltimore, MD. My work explores the complexities of the English language with poems in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). The visual interaction makes the viewer struggle to read similar to someone with Dyslexia. This visual intent stems from my time when I was working toward my MFA (Masters in Fine Art) in Portland, ME. My practice has certainly grown in This past year with a multitude of opportunities and exhibitions.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
The summer of 2011, I was 18 years old and I just graduated high school and I was about to enter as a freshmen at McDaniel College. I know that might seem odd, but to me I just accomplished something that I did not think as possible. I had a difficult time, academically speaking, growing up in the school system. I bounced around quite a bit to a few schools, until I found the two schools that could teach me. I was told by many individuals over the course of my young life, by experts in their own right, that I was one of the more sever cases of dyslexia that they ever tested. Which, in retrospect, can take a metal toll on a young person. To put things into context, I was at one point a 12 years old reading at a third grade level. I needed to work with teachers who specialized in teaching children, like myself, to not only work with me to get to grade level but thrive academically. At one point there was a thought, in the back of my mind, where I didn’t think was possible to not only graduating high school but also get into college seemed to be far fetch concept.
So back to the original question, during the summer of 2011 was a big milestone in my life, in a way, felt I just climbed my Everest while, getting ready to push forward onto my next milestone. There was a lot of journaling/poems written during this time, one being, “To Understand” which, was the first poem that I converted to IPA, starting this series of artworks.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Last summer I had to walk away from an abusive marriage/relationship of 6 years. The last four years is when I can recount the time of abusive traits starting to appear and naive me, at that time, did not recognize it or acknowledge it was happening; as it slowly got worse over the years. The trauma of hiding the abuse behind closed doors and pretending everything was ok is a painful way to live. Thankfully, I was able to leave that relationship with little retaliation. Of course, at that point you are left feeling empty and trying to rationalize and reflect on what happened. How do you allow yourself to be involved with someone that did not treat you right, but also stay in that situation, when it is clearly not a healthy to be in. As soon as I move into my current apartment, last year, I started channeling all of that pain into creating art about healing, and walking away from an abusive relationship, to starting over, and even to a point of forgiveness not just him but for myself. That whole body of work is a mixture of some old poems but most of them are new and are current. That ability of channeling that energy is extremely important during that time of healing which, I see as the power within myself. Taking something that was absolutely painful and turning it into something not only thought provoking but also powerful and meaningful.
As an artist we have the able to harness emotion or energy to create, wether it’s good or bad art is bedsides the point, the need to create is important.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
The belief of seeing the good in everyone. While that might be true to most but over the course of this healing journey, I have learned too recognized or be more cautious when meeting new people. Protecting my emotional and metal state has become important to me. Now that doesn’t mean I am not kind, I am, just careful with who I bring into my life. I am starting to trust my empathic instincts with people that I interact with. The saying “actions speak loader than words,” is something I am holding tight onto at the moment. Some people are more self-absorbed than others and view people with certain strengths as a means to end. As in, they only interact or are nice to you for their own self interest. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that mentality, it begs the question of asking yourself do they actually care about you as a whole person or not? I also think that technology and social media has in a way desensitized peoples ability to have empathy. I have personally seen this development in children and teenagers and some adults that I work with and it is quite alarming. There is definitely a cultural shift in how we interact with people. I am not saying there are no good and genuine people. They very much exist however, it is more about distinguishing the ones who are genuine verses people who are fake, and trusting yourself to make that determination.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What will you regret not doing?
I will regret not living my life to the absolute fullest. Life is too short not to. Life is unpredictable of course, however choosing to only staying in my safe bubble and not exploring what life has to offer is something I do not plan on missing out on.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ejleesartwork.com
- Instagram: ejleesartwork.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EJsARTWORK
Image Credits
these are my photos
