Lisa Lee | Artist, Founder | Gallery of the Arts

As a child, Lisa Lee grew up on a boat fishing between Fort Lauderdale and Islamorada, Florida. With a love for being out on the ocean, the ocean became the inspiration for her artistic style, as well as the gyotaku’s style. Today, Ms. Lee is a professional artist and the owner of Gallery of the Arts in Tavernier, Florida, on Key Largo. Founded in 2016, her gallery offers clients a place to explore her extensive portfolio of acrylic paintings, custom-made artisan cards and unique Japanese flower art, a practice called Ikebana. In addition, she teaches various art classes at her gallery. Notably, Ms. Lee has been featured in a 2022 episode of “Only in the Florida Keys” on the Discovery Channel and on “Art Loft” on PBS in 2021.

Before her entrepreneurial endeavors, Ms. Lee was a manager at Blick Art Materials in Chicago, the largest and oldest retailer of art supplies in the United States. She is backed by a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in piano performance from the University of Central Florida from 2007. While pursuing her degree, she also had the opportunity to study abroad at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland, a leading international art school, where she focused her studies on abstract painting and photography. A renowned pianist, Ms. Lee also studied piano abroad in Belgium and France, performed in various music hall concerts and participated in numerous tournaments.

To remain aware of developments affecting her field, Ms. Lee is a professional member of the Nature Printing Society, an international nonprofit organization that is devoted to both nature and the art of nature printing.  An active member of the Islamorada Chamber of Commerce, she is regarded for her contributions as a donor of various pieces of her artwork to charitable and nonprofit organizations, including the Dolphins Plus Marine Mammal Responder. Ms. Lee has also donated a percentage of her sales to The Turtle Hospital and has volunteered her time on a local coral reef restoration project. Additionally, she has served as a volunteer art teacher at various local schools.

Looking toward the future, Ms. Lee hopes to be able to travel around the world via boat, meet local people and make art while traveling. Her ultimate goal is to find more inspiration so she can bring her new artistic works back to her shop and display them for everyone to enjoy. Additionally, being able to fish somewhere unique and off the grid would be a dream come true. Lastly, something important to Ms. Lee as an artist is bringing the fish’s eyes back to life through Gyotaku, which is a Japanese method better known as “fish printing.”

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