SODAM LEE
Cultural Richness, relief print, 24" x 18", 2013

About the artist:

Sodam Lee is a printmaker and digital artist.  In her artwork she focuses on combining, layering, and comparing different lifestyles in compositional spaces.  Her art is symbolic, narrative, and abstract.

Sodam received an MFA in Integrated Visual Art from Iowa State University in May 2015.  She earned a BFA in fiber art and graduated summa cum laude from Kyungwon University in South Korea.

In 2013, 2014, and 2015 Sodam was selected to participate in the Large Format Printmaking and Residency Project in Venice, Italy for her unique, large-scale relief prints.

Sodam was awarded "Best of Show" in the Emerging Iowa Artists program at the Des Moines Arts Festival in 2013 and 2014.  Recently, she received a Purchase Award from the Gallery in the Memorial Union at Iowa State.  Her artwork was also selected for the international, juried show, Hong Kong Graphic Art Fiesta 2014 in Kowloon, HongKong, and the 34th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition at Bradley University in Peola, Illinois.

About the artist's work:

Cultural Richness is part of a series that shows Sodam's fascination with Medieval European architecture.

The church shown in this print, Notre-Dame de Reims, was chosen as a symbol of the assets of the European people.  Since Sodam's goal is to show the life of humans in different cultures and environments, this church shows the richness, grandeur, and greatness of this cultural heritage that flows from generation to generation in European countries.

Three different views--the ceiling, interior, and exterior of the building--are combined in this print and five different colors were chosen in Photoshop.  Two different colors were used to make natural gradation colors.  Depth/distance and light/shadow were all carefully considered in this series.