Lee's philosophy of art and education have also been strengthened by her study of Pan Tianshou, whom she describes as having "two basic values"--painting and teaching. When planning her study abroad, Lee knew that she also wanted to do something "both creative and productive." Again, the social importance of art motivated Lee to suggest producing a web site to a country just beginning to explore internet technology. "I can enjoy my education as long as I feel like I'm not just selfishly sucking up all this knowledge, but that I'm also putting it back into the community," she says.

Inspired by her experience in China, and her successful web site construction, Lee is now working on an even larger project. She is negotiating an international exchange exhibit between the Northwest Print Council and the China National Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibit will include 40 prints by professors of the academy and 40 prints by professors of PNCA and artist members of the Northwest Print Council. Lee's associates on the project include Barbara Davis, executive director of the Northwest Print Council; Gordon Gilkey, curator of prints and drawings at the Portland Art Museum; Susan Fillin-Yeh, curator of Reed's Cooley Art Gallery; and several university galleries and private foundations. Still negotiating logistic details and seeking more needed funding, Lee anticipates the exhibit's opening in the spring of 1998. She is certain that studying printmaking at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's graduate school next fall will not impede her work on the exchange, as her motivations are strong: "I want to do it for the artists, and I would love for these cultures to have an artistic dialogue." For more information on this project, call the Northwest Print Council at 503/234-6645 or Lee at 233-5938, or email elee@reed.edu.

After graduate school, Lee does not expect to teach in an institution, like Pan Tianshou. She hopes, instead, to be able to exist by creating art alone, and she plans to share her education by teaching the public through her art: "What I mean by teaching is making art that spawns people's social consciousness. Making art that encourages learning from life."

Laura Southers '98 is from Corvallis, Oregon, and plans to major in English.