Emilie Lee
Emilie Lee is a visual artist who has spent much of her life focused on climbing and being outdoors. Her paintings, collage journals, illustrations, video, and animation work explore people's relationship to place, and the importance of wilderness in our lives. She grew up in rural Vermont on a working farm, and discovered rock climbing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire at an early age. It didn't take long for her to fall in with the "dirtbag" climbing community and become a nomad of the American climbing circuit. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, she helped convert an old school bus into a vegetable oil powered mobile home, which she traveled in for a year of climbing out west.
Emilie's writing and artwork have been featured in Alpinist, Rock & Ice, The Access Fund and numerous other publications and organizations. Her video and animation work has been used by the band Pictures And Sound, our sister brand Nau and Patagonia's Vote The Environment campaign for Jack Johnson's summer 2008 tour.
After spending a year in Utah studying classical drawing techniques with master painter Kamille Corry, she moved to New York City where she is currently sharpening her skills with Jacob Collins at the Grand Central Academy of Art.
We met Emilie through a friend of a friend – seems to be the way we connect with lots of folks we like around here. She even helped us out with setting up our booth at the Outdoor Retailer show (a tradeshow), which she kindly dubbed, “The huge art installation.” She has worked with the good folks at Nau and Lizard Lounge too. In fact, she held an art show at the Lizard Lounge with her colorful journals that document her adventures in pursuit of the climber's dream: to stay on the road trip as long as possible. Powered by the discovery of free food in California's dumpsters, she and her friends embark on an unforgettable season of climbing in Joshua Tree, Indian Creek and Yosemite. After that, we just stayed in touch with her, well … because we dig her! We can’t wait to see what she gets into next.
Link up to learn more about and see more of Emilie.
Home page
Emilie’s Blog
Art Show at Lizard Lounge
Alpinist
Animation for Pictures and Sound
Animation for Vote the Environment
