Lee, Dom 1959–

PERSONAL:

Born May 4, 1959, in Seoul, Korea (now South Korea); son of Myung-Eui Lee (a painter) and Youngsook Park (a sculptor); married Keunhee Kim (an illustrator), November 15, 1982; children: Bum and Eun. Education: Seoul National University, B.F. A., 1985; School of Visual Arts, M.F.A., 1992.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Westwood, NJ. E-mail— dom@domandk.com; domandk@hanmail.net.

CAREER:

Illustrator. Hyung Lin Art Institute, Seoul, Korea, drawing instructor, 1985-89. Clients as a freelance illustrator include Baramedia, Bible Society, Clarion Books,Cricket magazine, Elizabeth Stone Gallery, Thomson Gale, Gallery 1199, Gilbut Publishing Company, Guatemala Human Rights Commission, Harcourt & Brace Company, Holt Rinehart & Winston Inc., Houghton Mifflin Company, Josef & Edith Mincberg Gallery, Kirchoff & Wohlberg Inc., Lee & Low Books,Ligature magazine, Macmillan Publishing Company, McGraw-Hill Company, Morning Calm Gallery, National Geographic World,1199 News, Pangborn Gallery, Scholastic Inc., Scott Foresman Addison Wesley, Samson Fine Arts Inc., Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, and Zaner-Bloser.

Exhibitions: "Generations," School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY, 1991; "Contest," School of Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY, 1992; "Urbanscapes: Images of New York City," Bread & Roses Cultural Foundation, New York, NY, 1993; "Works on Wax," Indeco Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, 1995; "The Art of Dom and Keunhee Lee," Elizabeth Stone Gallery, Birmingham, MI, 1997, Morning Calm Gallery, New York, NY, 1998, Pangborn Gallery, Detroit, MI, 1999, and Works Gallery, New York, NY, 2002; "An Exhibition of Work by Dom and Keunhee Lee," Wolfe Gallery, Toledo, OH, 1997; "Works on Wax by Dom Lee," Works Gallery, New York, NY, 2003. Also contributor to exhibitions in Bologna, Italy; San Francisco, CA; Fort Wayne, IN; and Houston, TX.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Council of the City of New York, Asian American Heritage Month honoree, 2006; Bank Street College Children's Book Committee, children's book of the year, 2006, for Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story; Masterlist, Texas Bluebonnet award, 1998-99, for Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story,2006-07, for Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, California Peace Education Fund, children's peace book award, for Passage to Freedom; Reading Magic award,Parenting magazine, for Passage to Freedom; Cuffies award for best multicultural title,Publishers Weekly,1993, for Baseball Saved Us.

WRITINGS:

(Illustrator) Ken Mochizuki,Baseball Saved Us, Lee & Low (New York, NY), 1993.

(Illustrator) Ken Mochizuki,Heroes, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Urbanscapes, J'amimage (Seoul, South Korea), 1995.

Fire Works, Gilbut (Seoul, South Korea), 1996.

(Illustrator) Ken Mochizuki,Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story, afterword by Hiroki Sugihara, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 1997.

(Illustrator, with wife, Keunhee Lee) Lawrence McKay, Jr.,Journey Home, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 1998.

(Illustrator) Kirk Douglas,Young Heroes of the Bible: A Book for Family Sharing, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 1999.

(Illustrator) Paula Yoo,Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 2005.

(Illustrator) Ken Mochizuki,Be Water, My Friend: The Early Years of Bruce Lee, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Gomie and Opoondori, Bori (Seoul, South Korea), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Dom Lee is a Korean-born American illustrator. Born in Seoul in 1959, the son of a painter and a sculptor, Lee earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Seoul National University's College of Fine Arts in 1985. While a student in 1982, he married his wife, Keunhee Kim, also an illustrator. Upon graduation he worked as a drawing instructor at Hyung Lin Art Institute, in Seoul until 1989. The following year Lee moved to the United States to pursue his studies. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in illustration from New York's School of Visual Arts in 1992. Lee took to illustrating books and other materials for numerous clients, including publishers, periodicals, and international organizations. His illustrations and art work have been available to the public in a number of exhibitions in the United States, South Korea, and Italy.

In 1993 Lee illustrated his first book,Baseball Saved Us. Written by Ken Mochizuki, the story tells of a Japanese American family living in an internment camp during World War II, and how working together by building a baseball field, they were able to come closer together despite their imprisonment. Reviews for the book were mostly positive. Writing in Horn Book Magazine, Ellen Fader commented that "Dom Lee's pictures, executed in a scratchboard and oil paint technique, are highly accomplished." Fader considered: "At first glance they seem monotonous and depressing," but realized that "in fact these somber scenes provide a telling contrast" for the events of the story. A contributor to Publishers Weekly concluded that "the artist movingly conveys the bleakness of camp life, with its cramped quarters, swirling dust storms, and armed guards."

In 1995 Mochizuki and Lee teamed up to write Heroes. Here a Japanese American boy faces racial hatred from schoolmates who associate him with being the enemy during the Vietnam War era. Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman described the story as "moving." Fader, again writing in Horn Book Magazine, noted that "Lee has done a superb job of creating realistic, individualized faces for each of the characters."

Lee worked again with Mochizuki in 1997 to create Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story. The title incident tells of how the Japanese consul in Lithuania issued visas to hundreds of Jewish Poles, saving them from Nazi persecution during World War II. Rochman called the story "stirring … humane and beautiful" in a Booklist review. Hanna B. Zeiger, writing in Horn Book Magazine, remarked that "the haunting faces in the illustrations in brown and sepia tones have the feeling of old photographs, not unlike the images associated with Nazi photographs of the Holocaust."

In 1998 Lee illustrated Journey Home with his wife, Keunhee Lee. Written by Lawrence McKay, Jr., the story tells of a Vietnamese American woman who brings her daughter to Vietnam in search of their origins. A contributor to Publishers Weekly thought that "The Lees' … realistic art, by turns brightly lighted and almost oppressively dark, seamlessly matches the changing moods of the text."

In 2005 Lee paired with Paula Yoo to create Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story. Here Korean American Sammy Lee overcomes racism that restricted his use of the public swimming pool where he trained to ultimately become the first Asian American athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympics. Susan Dove Lempke, writing in Horn Book Magazine, said that "with their textured effect … Lee's scratchboard illustrations … convey immediacy." A contributor to Publishers Weekly wrote that "Lee's … sepia-tinged textured illustrations, made by scratching images out of wax melted over acrylic paints, lend a graceful, respectful tone to the story."

In 2007 Lee worked with Mochizuki again in creating Be Water, My Friend: The Early Years of Bruce Lee. The account tells the life of famed martial arts master Bruce Lee in his youth before coming to the United States. Anne Chapman Callaghan, writing in School Library Journal, commented that "the brown-and-white illustrations … are lovely and play an important role in moving the narrative along."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklinks, May, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story, p. 23; March, 2006, Cyndi Giorgis, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 16; March, 2006, Carole Prendergast, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, p. 38; September, 2006, Linda Leonard Lamme, review of Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story, p. 38.

Booklist, April 15, 1993, Hazel Rochman, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 1523; March 15, 1995, Hazel Rochman, review of Heroes, p. 1335; May 15, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 1574; March 15, 1998, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 1219; May 1, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 1523; May 1, 1998, Hazel Rochman, review of Journey Home, p. 1518; October 1, 1999, review of Young Heroes of the Bible: A Book for Family Sharing, p. 371; Hazel Rochman, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 2027; March 15, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, p. 1287; September 1, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Be Water, My Friend: The Early Years of Bruce Lee, p. 118.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May, 1993, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 290; September 1997, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 19; February, 2007, Elizabeth Bush, review of Be Water, My Friend, p. 261.

Entertainment Weekly, April 8, 1994, Bob Cannon, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 69.

Five Owls, November, 2000, review of Young Heroes of the Bible, p. 30.

Horn Book Magazine, July 1, 1993, Ellen Fader, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 453; May 1, 1995, Ellen Fader, review of Heroes, p. 327; November 1, 1997, Hanna B. Zeiger, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 698; July 1, 2005, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, p. 493; November 1, 2006, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Be Water, My Friend, p. 733.

Instructor, November 1, 1993, Judy Freeman, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 71.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2005, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, p. 361; August 15, 2006, review of Be Water, My Friend, p. 848.

Language Arts, January, 1996, review of Heroes, p. 59.

Library Media Connection, November 1, 2005, Cynthia Schulz, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, p. 72.

Midwest Book Review, August, 2005, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds.

New York Times Book Review, April 4, 1993, Ira Berkow, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 26.

Publishers Weekly, March 29, 1993, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 55; February 6, 1995, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 86; March 6, 1995, review of Heroes, p. 69; April 21, 1997, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 71; May 25, 1998, review of Journey Home, p. 90; September 27, 1999, review of Young Heroes of the Bible, p. 98; April 4, 2005, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, p. 59; September 18, 2006, review of Be Water, My Friend, p. 54.

Reading Teacher, February, 1994, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 412; December, 1995, review of Heroes, p. 325; November, 1996, review of Heroes, p. 245; September, 1998, Evelyn B. Freeman, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 58; November, 1998, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 275; February, 1999, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 501; May, 1999, review of Journey Home, p. 865.

School Library Journal, June, 1993, Tom S. Hurlburt, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 84; July, 1995, John Philbrook, review of Heroes, p. 79; July, 1997, Shirley Wilton, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 86; June, 1998, Diane S. Marton, review of Journey Home, p. 114; January, 2000, Elizabeth Maggio, review of Young Heroes of the Bible, p. 119; April, 2005, Blair Christolon, review of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, p. 128; May, 2006, Marilyn Taniguchi, review of Baseball Saved Us, p. 60; November, 2006, Anne Chapman Callaghan, review of Be Water, My Friend, p. 122.

Skipping Stones, September 1, 1998, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 32.

Smithsonian, November, 1995, review of Heroes, p. 172.

Social Education, April, 1998, review of Passage to Freedom, p. 15.