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On a summer afternoon, a mother is engrossed in the arduous task of washing clothes in an old-fashioned tin wash bucket. Her hands are raw and red, but each garment is meticulously wrung out and hung to dry under the relentless sun. Her baby boy, full of youthful energy, sends his ball careening by Mama is undeterred by the unfolding chaos or the creeping fatigue. She continues her labor with an unspoken strength. The playful commotion seems to only fuel her resolve to get the work done rather than distract her. Each piece of clothing that dries light stands as another symbol of her commitment to family.
HERStory Matters: Artist Annie Lee was born on March 3, 1935.
Artist Annie Frances Lee was born in Gadsden, Alabama. Raised by a single parent, she grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Wendell Phillips High School. Lee began painting at an early age, winning her first art competition at the age of ten. Lee was offered a four-year scholarship to attend Northwestern University after high school, but married instead and raised a family.
It was not until age forty that Lee decided to pursue a career as an artist. She enrolled in Loop Junior College and completed her undergraduate work at Mundelein College in Chicago. After eight years of night classes, while working at Northwestern Railroad as a clerk in the engineering department, Lee earned her M.A. degree in interdisciplinary arts education from Loyola University.
Lee’s railroad job inspired one of her most popular paintings, "Blue Monday," which depicts a woman struggling to pull herself out of bed on a Monday morning. Her trademarks are the animated emotion of the personalities in the artwork and the faces which are painted without features. At age fifty, Lee had her first gallery show; she allowed prints to be made of four of her original paintings. Using her unique designs, Lee also developed figurines, high fashion dolls, decorative housewares, and kitchen tiles.
After showing her work in other galleries for a number of years, Lee opened Annie Lee and Friends Gallery where she displayed her works as well as the works of other artists. When several of her paintings appeared on the sets of popular television shows such as "The Cosby Show" and "A Different World," the exposure helped popularize her work. Although she regularly received requests for public appearances, Lee preferred to appear at gallery shows; she also enjoyed visiting schools to encourage and inspire students. She passed away on November 14, 2014, at the age of 79.
This piece is from the private collection of Patricia Andrews Keenan the founder of Pigment international Magazine. This piece is not for Sale.