From kindergarten tutor to visual artist, Penang's home-grown artist, Queen Lee, explores her connection with the world through her various art-related ventures.
By Lee Kwai Han
“Hello, Queen? May I borrow your easels for Arts-ED’s programme next week?”
“How many sets do you need?”
That was the first conversation I had with Queen Lee on the phone in 2014, when I first met her through Arts-ED. Soon, I learnt that she was the owner of Chai Diam Ma Art Space and Cafe, and an avid supporter of Arts-ED since 2004.
Visiting her recent solo introspective exhibition, “Looking for Meaningful Connection”, in Hin Bus Depot was a refreshing experience. Her disarming frankness about herself intrigued me so I decided to learn more about her. .
Two Worlds from The Fishes and I series. The painting measuring 173cm by 125cm is dotted with thousands of intricately-drawn “American Fish”, a name that Lee cheekily translated from be-kok-hu (a colloquial name for guppies in her mother tongue, Hokkien).
Becoming a connecting dot
Lee started Chai Diam Ma Art Space and Cafe in Lebuh Queen in 2011. Missing the olden days when she spent her after-school hours in tea houses for theatre group workshops, Lee dedicated Chai Diam Ma to creating space for local arts and crafts. In the cafe, she designated an area for the display and sale of local handmade crafts, postcards, books, magazines, indie music albums, etc. Chai Diam Ma also hosted multiple exhibitions, film screenings and performances, including its first-ever exhibition titled “Home-coming”.
Gig in Chai Diam Ma’s cafe-turned-music venue in 2015.
Chai Diam Ma was started merely three years after George Town’s listing as a world heritage site. Despite the low foot traffic in town after office hours, Lee insisted on keeping Chai Diam Ma open until ten at night as a space where people could meet up and spend time together in George Town after hours. “If no one starts doing it, it will never happen,” she explained her insistence.
In 2017, Lee opened another Chai Diam Ma—a local handicraft store in Hin Bus Depot—while she slowly established herself as an arts and crafts bazaar organiser in Malaysia. Under the Chai Diam Ma brand name, she organised arts and crafts bazaars in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, and Melaka. Through her work in different parts of Malaysia, she weaved a network of local crafters and artisans.
The second installment of Party Lorong in Lebuh Queen in December 2014. The art event was organised by Syiok Wasabi, a group co-founded by Lee and her two Japanese friends to promote local and regional arts and crafts in Penang.
Tracing the Lines
Lee spent most of her formative years living by Sungai Kelian in a village in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, where she traces back her inspiration for drawing guppies and birds. Her recent exhibition reveals her close connection with her birthplace and the people she holds dear in her life. The embroidery series titled Growing Up with Mr. Lee carries the joy of her childhood memories of spending time with her father as well as her struggle to come to terms with his passing. To further reconnect with her family memories, she also created a collaborative piece together with her sisters that weaves together their stories of living next to the river.
Road to Paradise in the Growing up with Mr. Lee series commemorates Lee’s childhood memory of motorcycle rides with her late father on the winding road between Tanjung Bungah and Balik Pulau.
Lee’s signature guppies and black birds first appeared in her paintings and crafts when she started Chai Diam Ma in 2011. These guppies and birds have evolved since then, forming different patterns in her artworks—an outcome of exploring pointillism alongside gaining life experience. Her pointillism paintings were exhibited in her mini solo exhibitions in Lunabarcoffee in George Town (2018), 11F Art Space in Johor, and Iron River Studio in Kuala Lumpur (2019). She also works on art commissions with related themes and techniques.
In 2021, Lee was amongst the eight artists selected for George Town Festival’s “3 x 3” Art Residency and Group Exhibition. She further pursued pointillism in her embroidery work which she found calming, especially in facing uncertainties under the Covid-19 movement restriction.
Fearless in Exploring the New Self
Before starting Chai Diam Ma, Lee had been a kindergarten tutor for six years after graduating from INTEC College with a Diploma in Fine Art. In addition to teaching, she made props and costumes for children’s performances in the kindergarten and, later, for Arts-ED’s programmes. “I just wanted to try something else,” Lee replies, when asked about her career switch after graduation.
Taking a closer look at her practices over the years, her world has not stopped revolving around the arts. “I think my biggest strength is that I am not afraid of looking silly,” Lee says, reflecting on her daring moves to follow her passion.
Lee turned her disappointing experience of meeting online dating scammers into an acrylic-and-embroidery mixed media collection, Online Dating Series: Man over Flowers.
Lee’s multiple ventures reminds me of Bruce Lee’s “be water” philosophy as he elaborated on The Pierre Berton Show in 1971. While Bruce Lee sees practicing martial arts as a process of continuous growth towards expressing oneself honestly, Queen Lee dedicates herself to an analogous journey through her various forms of practices around visual arts.
To quote Bruce Lee, “water can flow, or it can crash”. There is much more to look forward to from Queen Lee.
All images courtesy of Queen Lee
Lee Kwai Han manages arts and environmental education projects in Penang. Despite her training in engineering, she believes arts is the software solution our society needs.