Rita Lee

Rita K. Lee (they/them/佢) started at Stamps in the fall of 2010 as a first-generation college student with dreams of becoming a mangaka. Their plan quickly de-railed when they took Clay to Bronze, the only elective studio course that still had room for enrollment for the fall of 2011. The remainder of their undergraduate years were spent taking every class offered involving sculpture, being a Stamps Dean’s Office and Sculpture Studio work-study, and eating a lot of Panda Express (not sponsored). They completed their BFA (2014) from Stamps with a minor in Music from the U-M School of Music, Theater & Dance. After trying their hand working retail for two seasons, they applied to and completed their MFA in Sculpture (2017) from Eastern Michigan University (EMU) while working nights as a temporary sculpture studio monitor at both Stamps and EMU. Their studio practice since 2013 is navel-gazing by making self-portraits in whatever media they can get their hands on.

They worked full-time for the Pittsfield Charter Township Clerk’s Office from January 2019 to September 2021. The elections they helped administer were the 2019 Ann Arbor Public School Millage election with minimal communicable disease concerns, all three 2020 Presidential elections held during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a Township-wide 2021 Public Safety Millage with hybrid COVID-19 precautions and attitudes. They are still deeply passionate about voting rights and will talk as much as you allow them to about how you and your community can participate in the democratic process.

They are the primary caretaker of three cats: Potato (tortoiseshell), Olive (black), and Bancha (tabby with patches of orange). Humans and other species living in mutually beneficial relationships just makes them so happy to actively think about, so please do share photos/stories with them about your good pupper, birb, garden noodle, etc.