LEE EMMA RUNNING
Hothouse 2008, Adhesive vinyl on skywalk window, 300 linear feet, 2008

Lee Running received a MFA in Sculpture at the University of Iowa in 2005, and received her BFA from Pratt Institute in 1999.

Hothouse 2008 was created for the Iowa Artists 2008 Exhibition at the Des
Moines Art Center. Of her work, Running writes, "My work functions as an aesthetic intervention into public space. I am interested in pedestrian culture and in creating a sense of surprise in my viewer. A storefront window that might be walked by every day on the way to work is suddenly transformed. My installations go up quickly, sometimes overnight, and elevate local botanical life to enormous proportions. I use the low-tech tool of projection and work from actual botanical specimens.

Everything I create strives to capture the beauty and complexity witnessed in very close investigation of natural phenomena. In the best moments, my work creates a sense of wonder in my viewer. I invite people in, whether into an installation filling a storefront window, or a more traditional drawing on a page: "what is this beautiful thing?' I then invite further investigation "what am I actually looking at?" It is this moment of attraction and investigation that I am most interested in cultivating."

Lee Emma Running's website