Isabelle Grue Lee is a self-taught artist from Vancouver, born and raised on the West Coast.
Always interested in art making, she has played with various media in the past but embraced her collage work during the pandemic of 2020. Her work investigates color theory as well as the textural volume of a 2D image. Drawing inspiration from unrestricted forms of self-expression, Isabelle lets go of parameters and external standards to take pleasure in the playfulness of creation, resulting in abstracted, unexpected images.
Her work invites viewers to feel soothed in the sumptuous color, organic forms, and balance of the piece but often with an underlying edge of uneasiness from the ambiguity of the overall composition of these assemblages.
Artist Statement
My creative process is based on trusting my initial, visceral reaction to the shapes, textures and colours I see within the pages of various magazines or books that I spend days tearing through. The clipping and cutting out of the shapes that I find within these torn pages is a meditative and therapeutic process and I am left with what feels like a million unique puzzle pieces that are begging to be put back together.
Eventually, through careful selection and constant rearranging, a moment of epiphany will arrive when these different elements come together to reveal a beautiful tension and relation to each other. Creating something new, unexpected, and beautiful.
Shadow, light, volume and colour are instrumental components of my work and finding the beauty in the chaos of hundreds of clippings brings a sense of joy and wonder I hope viewers of my work can also experience.
Contact Isabelle for purchase inquiries, commissions, or collaboration opportunities
