Tamara Lee

When the pandemic hit, seemingly overnight our lives were turned upside down. Fear, illness, juggling family and personal needs, work (or lack there of) and money matters came tumbling down like an avalanche around us.

For me, I was lucky. I was fine…for now, anyway. But I knew I wouldn’t get to do the one thing I love to do the most - to get on a plane, to hop on a train or jump in the car and go. So, with nothing but time and nowhere to run, I traveled inward to a place that seemed nurturing and safe. Creating art has been a lifelong pursuit and the more introspective I became I found comfort in working with paint and paper as I did when I would visit with my Grandmother as a young girl. I remembered fondly, long afternoons cutting out images I liked from magazines and the Montgomery Ward catalog. I’d paste them in a giant scrapbook in some organized fashion known only to my young mind and then zealously paint and crayon over the images making a right mess of things!

So, as the weeks of lockdown turned into months, I began to explore the notion of balance and how we all felt our lives were so out of harmony. I revisited my photography from my extensive travels and specifically was drawn to the last road trip adventure I took, right before the lockdown, to New Mexico and Arizona. The spare open space of land and sky with the remarkable rock formations jutting up in the the middle of nowhere got me thinking about how this period in time we are in may feel interminable, but it is actually fleeting. What remains is the foundation of our earth, it shifts and it changes but keeps on transforming and adapting to its environment. We’ve all had to adapt these past few months, and do it very quickly. But the stories I have heard from friends and strangers alike gives me hope that we are adjusting to our new normal, rising to the challenge of juggling the endless situations and needs of those around us and somehow achieving an Impossible Balance.

Created with acrylic paint on paper, cut into pleasing shapes and stacked one upon the other, this new collection is the embodiment of an Impossible Balance. To view the full collection click here.