- City
- Toronto
- Booth
- Nathan Phillips Square
Booth 120
Donald Lee
Inspired by the beauty and complexity of Chinese characters, Donald Lee contemplates how Chinese writing came to be, and how countless named and unnamed creative individuals throughout history contributed to the formation of thousands of abstract characters.
To partake in this continuum, but with different intents, Donald explores his own personal way of creating and expressing abstract characters through a process sequence that involves drawing, writing and painting. His characters are neither derived nor evolved from existing writing. They are newly invented, mostly asemic, sometimes symbolic. Their forms are distinct (like fingerprints) and recognizable (like faces), and become the models for his paintings. Donald named them “Drawing Script” (繪篆).
Donald sees writing as a form of drawing, practices drawing as a form of writing, and employs the invented characters as the subject of his paintings. His practice is driven by his interest in visualizing how things come together.
Line-by-line, he observes the becoming of drawing.
Character-by-character, he experiences the becoming of writing.
Colour-by-colour, he explores the becoming of painting.
