Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) Department of Art and Design welcomed the works of artist Jiyoun Lee-Lodge in the exhibition “Roommates and Strangers,” which opened on Sept. 6 at CMU’s downtown art gallery. 

Jiyoun Lee-Lodge was born in Korea and is a Utah-based artist whose works in ink and paint were drawn from two different series, “Roommates” and “Waterman the Stranger.” Her website states, “I make portraits of people, place and things of now and around me they are more of the complex of information than the visual appearances of those things. I capture the perceivable elements of the moments […] into shapes.”

The series, according to a CMU press release, “addresses how people process and deal with change.” The pieces at the exhibition reflect on Lee-Lodge’s struggle to adapt to Utah after moving there from New York, as well as the experience of living with roommates. 

The “Roommates” part of the series reflects organized chaos – all in a good creative way that explores the scope of living with roommates. It tells the story of the grief and frustration that comes along with co-inhabiting, including messes, disagreements over food and whose turn it is to clean the bathroom. By looking at the paintings, you can relate to the situations portrayed. 

For the “Strangers” part of the exhibition (drawn from “Waterman the Stranger”), the pieces portray people as exploding waves of water, as water is uncontrollable and uncontained – creating a metaphor for people and circumstances, which are also uncontrollable. Lee-Lodge takes elaborate sketches one step further as an ink drawing and shows the imagery of one individual in each piece. Further down the road, taking the series to printmaking, especially engraving, would create another layer of the work. 

Both parts of the gallery series use elements of storytelling to narrate through illustration. No one can truly understand what an artist is feeling or relate to it directly, but by staying open-minded while looking at art, you can understand some of the universal experiences and emotions being portrayed. A reflection of a lot of artwork is that it can either be vastly universal or deeply personal. At the end of the day, exploring different realms of art is simply enjoyable.