Jieun Grace Lee

Studio Art Major, Educational Studies Minor

While the last four years at Carleton have certainly been some of the best in my life, these drawings take a fresh view on the college experience by reflecting my personal day-to-day experiences with candor. I allude to a sense of ‘going through the motions’, and share glimpses of the realities of chronic pain and depression. These drawings show a slice of life that isn’t typically highlighted in the college experience, but is defining of my college experience.  

My drawings are also about endowing the ordinary and everyday with importance. I capture myself amid quotidian, everyday moments that have consistently been a part of my final year at Carleton. We often highlight the big events in our lives while dismissing the in-between moments. It is my hope that this project inspires us to reflect on how we rise, fall, and persevere when no one else is looking. To value moments that typically go unappreciated because they are so mundane. The ‘boring’ stretches of time in our lives are more than gaps in between our most transformative landmarks. They are the connecting bridges without which none of us would be possible. 

Photo: Eric Mueller

#2 of 10
A series of framed black-and-white portraits, some of which are mounted on brown paper.
Installation view, Grace Lee, Perlman Teaching Museum, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. Photo by Eric Mueller.
Previous image
Black and white image of pen drawing that depicts overlapping self-portraits of Grace taking out contact lenses and putting on glasses.
Jieun Grace Lee, ‘nighttime’, 2022, pen on paper. 9×12 inches.
Next image
Two black-and-white self-portraits of a girl in various phases of eating ramen and putting on her glasses mounted on brown paper.

Installation view, Grace Lee, Perlman Teaching Museum, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. Photo by Eric Mueller.

13 May 2022