In part two of this four-part video interview series (watch Part 1 here), Denver-based art critic and writer Kealey Boyd explores Sammy Lee’s experience as a RedLine Resident Artist.

In the video below, Lee discusses the way her residency at RedLine plugged her into Colorado’s creative ecosystem. Hear how being given the time and space to create—plus gaining access to a network of other inspiring creatives—allowed Lee to feel like a true artist.

About Sammy Lee

Sammy Lee is an artist based in Denver, Colorado. Lee was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Southern California at the age of sixteen. She studied fine art and media art at UCLA and architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Learn more about Sammy Lee >

About Interviewer Kealey Boyd

Kealey Boyd is a writer and art critic based in Denver, Colorado. Her research interests include methodologies for interpreting painting and other visual forms as an integral element of political and cultural discourses.

She is a regular contributor to Hyperallergic, and her writing is featured in LA Times, The Art Newspaper, Art Papers, College Art Association (CAA Reviews), The Belladonna Comedy, Artillery Magazine and elsewhere.

Learn more about Kealey Boyd >

Watch Interview with Resident Alumni Sammy Lee Part 2: Life at RedLine

Kealey Boyd: So I would like to shift into talking about your time at RedLine. How did you first learn about the residency? Were you already living in Denver?

Sammy Lee: Yeah.

Kealey Boyd: How did that kind of begin?

Sammy Lee: I moved to Denver, 2007. I was eight weeks pregnant, and I know RedLine started in 2008, and that's when I gave birth. And because I was new to Denver and actively looking, seeking artistic community, and I was at Wang Gongxin's Exhibition at RedLine one time with, I think it was support group for Art of Asia at Danbury Museum so with people we visited and exhibition was amazing.

But then I got to see all this little rooms surrounding the exhibition area and that's when I started. I'm like, "Oh, I really want to come here." So that's how I discovered it, and started wanting this really bad.

So I was waiting for my kids to go to daycare and as soon as he was able to and I was able to secure at least, I think I waited until he was first-grader. So I have at least like 9:00 to 2:30. So I applied and started at RedLine.

Kealey Boyd: So what did the little rooms mean to you? Why did you want to apply?
Sammy Lee: There was this exhibition and all these artists, resident artists in their studio surrounded by the exhibition space working on their project. And that kind of direct exposure to different exhibition was good. But I just didn't know that there was place like RedLine that supports artist and invest their time.

Two years was perfect because as a mom that I need to be in Denver and residency was not possible for me to just leave and go somewhere. And so that two year was kind of long-term relationship and commitment from both party to just really make things together, I thought it was really amazing opportunity for me to give it a shot. Yeah.

Kealey Boyd: So it sounds like the idea of a community, a place outside the home, this kind of real carving out and professionalizing of all the ideas you had bubbling.

Sammy Lee: So when I was applying, I made my backyard shed office, I mean the art studio. And it had a big window facing my kitchen and my kitchen had a big window, picture window, facing my studio. So this was me in my studio making work, looking at my kitchen, "Oh, I should really make some dinner." And in the kitchen I'm like, "I should finish the part. My glue was not dried properly."

So I was in the space looking each other and thinking, "Oh, I should have done that." So it wasn't really happy place.

So I wanted it to come where other artists are and working and I thought it would be great because, again, I came here pregnant and became mother. So I had my strong community of other moms, but I wanted to also make artist friends and other networks beyond that motherhood.

Kealey Boyd: Can you think of a specific moment at RedLine that you feel like is a good example of that? Of finding community and network or finding space?

Sammy Lee: Yeah…just having like 15 other artists at the same time was great and RedLine bringing many programs into [being], and bringing speakers and curator critics and other artists who were little ahead of you [to inspire] you was good. And just seeing how everyone is really finding their way, because I was one of the maybe handful of people who came like 9 to 3-ish.

Kealey Boyd: When was everybody else working?

Sammy Lee: They're coming in at 4:30, after their day job, you know?

Kealey Boyd: Yeah.

Sammy Lee: But everyone's so committed to make this happen because they’re artists. Even though their day job might be something else, teachers or something else. But they're all committed to making this happen because they're artists. And that was really nice because again, sometime you know who you are, but it's really nice to be with other people [who are who] you want to be, right?