Lee Carrier is a native Texan. She received a B.A. from the University of Houston in 2006 and an M.ED. in 2007, also from UH. Carrier taught art education to high school students for 10 years prior to transitioning into her current role as the K-12 Curriculum Coordinator of Visual Art for Cypress-Fairbanks ISD in 2016. Carrier also taught a semester at Texas Southern University. While pursuing her undergraduate degree, she studied the work of Frida Kahlo, which inspired her to paint self-portraits that told truths of her fears and insecurities. While getting her Master of Education Degree at the University Houston, opportunities to publicly display her art surfaced, and as a result, she was influenced to create art for communal spaces individually and with the high school students, she taught. Carrier is currently pursuing an Executive Doctor of Education Degree in K-12 Leadership and Policy Studies at UH and her topic of research interest is to conduct a mixed-methods study on how fine arts programs impact the social-emotional and academic development of students in public schools. 

 

Carrier has shown work at the Gremillion and Co. Fine Art, Inc., the Community Artists’ Collective, where she first exhibited in 2006, Lawndale Art Center, War’hous Visual Studios, East End Studio Gallery, the Art Institute of Houston, Hardy and Nance Street Studios, Project Row House, the MFAH Glassell School of Art, and the University Museum at Texas Southern University.  From 2006-2016 Carrier created chalk art murals as a fundraiser for the Center for Hearing and Speech at the Houston Via Colori Street Painting Festival. She had two solo shows, in April 2015 at Esperson Gallery and in February 2016 at the Houston Museum of African American Culture.

 

Artist Statement

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My current work consists of the theme, Tribes and Tribulations which is the result of researching tribal women throughout the globe.  To serve as symbols of “tribulations” that women of color face throughout their life, I recreated and reimaged concepts of womanhood, beauty, and strength to assemble a “modern tribe” of liberated women. After sketching female imagery on brown paper bags, I enhance each portrait to showcase the beauty and uniqueness of global femininity united. Using mixed media that includes rust, ink, acrylic, gold leaf, found paper, and wood, my blended work represents the resilience and diversity found amongst the descendants of indigenous women across the seven continents. Many will find similarities in physical appearance and culture. It is the connectedness the I find most appealing when I am in the process of creating. I hope to influence others to appreciate women of color in the workplace, in schools, and in public spaces in addition to cultivating unity.