Hodinöhsö:ni’ Juried Art Show • April 8-11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

My painting of my great Grandmother, Nora Rocking Boat, will be exhibited at Ganondagan in April.

Excerpted from Life in the Finger Lakes Magazine

For the first time in its history, the Ganondagan State Historic Site’s annual Haudenosaunee Art Show carries a unifying theme: “What is a Haudenosaunee Peace?” Kristin Asche, lead curator of the 8th annual exhibition, sees it as both a lens for reflection and a challenge for artists.

Ganondagan is more than a historic site. It is a living repository of memory and presence. For artist Kristin Witbeck Lee, showing work there is both a personal pilgrimage and a cultural dialogue.

“My Haudenosaunee name, given to me by my great-grandmother, is Ganä:gah:is — One Who Splashes Water,” Lee shares. “I still live with what this could mean. To be playfully disruptive? Cleansing? Water always moves, and all living things move and change constantly, adapting to the environment, flowing to an ocean where all merges again. I try to work with this.”

Ganondagan has long been central to Lee’s personal and artistic life. “It is a sort of Mother Country for me,” she explains. “I grew up with a Seneca father, Luis R. Lee, of the Beaver Clan, visiting family in the Seneca Territories of Allegany and Cattaraugus. I learned so much there. But there is also pain — from the Kinzua Dam tragedy, which affected so many, including my family. I often thought about all that had been burned and buried under the tomb of a lake.”

Lee’s connection deepened over years of visits when her father worked as an artisan during the summer festival. “I fell in love with it,” she says. “I had dreams of Jigonsaseh, New Face, in my early thirties. I grew up with stories of No Face — the girl whose pride lost her face and wandered anonymously doing service. But I realized the figure in my dream was New Face, the Mother of Peace, the first to hear and accept the message of the Great Peacemaker. That listening, that clarity, that conscious attention — that is the human practice, living by the tenets of the good Mind, making Creation more beautiful and livable. She is a wonderful role model.”

Exhibiting at Ganondagan is both an honor and a homecoming. “Visiting that land felt like visiting a grandmother,” Lee recalls. “I’ve been in two juried shows there, but bringing the portrait of my great-grandmother, Nora Rocking Boat — Seneca Clan mother and representative of the Mother of Peace — to this sacred place open to all is deeply meaningful.”

Lee’s practice draws on personal history, cultural continuity, and contemporary expression. She seeks to encounter the essence in all beings and express this through color, form, and material so it can be a living experience repeatedly. Portrait commissions are a focus. “Everyone needs to feel seen,” she explains. “A from-life portrait not only memorializes but can heal and continue to inspire. I also offer energy portraits from intuition; these are often striking and treasured by my patrons.”

Currently, Lee is developing a new series of large abstracted watercolor landscapes inspired by spiritual beings and ancestors experienced through the life of the land. She grew up on two worlds — on the territories and in the suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut. Her ancestor Cornplanter was a ‘half-breed’ and a great leader. Though she often felt she didn’t fully fit in either world, she sensed an opportunity to bridge them and foster understanding.

“The culture is ours, but its beauty and principles can belong to everyone,” she says. Her work combines historical and contemporary methods from around the world while remaining rooted in the traditional craft arts of her family.

Trip to China

I’ve been invited to work with Master Jove Wang to work with him and a few other artists this fall in the studio he built in the Jilin Province of China, in the rural north bordering Russia, Mongolia and Korea. I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to stay there and paint en plein air for three weeks. I’ve long admired Jove Wang’s work, and it will be an enormous Priceline to work there in nature with him in such a special setting. I’ll be updating here on the trip in the months to come.