A few images of Seldens Landing Elementary School's students remain caught in the brown and white drawing rolls Ame Lee has in her make-shift studio.
The Ashburn resident is unfurling the images one student at a time as she works in the school's entrance, sitting at her easel with an office chair as her stool and India ink dipped on a magic marker as her brush. Lee spent the past two weeks drawing nearly all of Seldens Landing's 270 students for a mural, which hangs, in part, along the upper edges of the cafeteria walls. She plans to finish the mural this week.
"I feel like when I'm working on the paper, I'm discovering the face in the paper," said Lee, who volunteered to do the drawings at the school where her two sons attend classes. "Drawing for me is no effort at all. ... When I'm really in tune with what I'm looking at, when I'm observing intently, it's like the observation in my mind translates through my fingers."
That translation starts with the two nostril holes in the middle of the face. "If you catch that shape, it seems like everything falls into place," said Lee, who moved from Utah to Loudoun County last month with her husband James Richard Lee and their children. "Some of the portraits don't look right until you get the hair. Some click with the first line."
Lee said she avoids looking at the paper as she draws and that the longer she eyes her subject, the better her drawing becomes.
"I like watching my picture get drawn on the piece of paper to go around the school. I like to see my face pop out, and to see how she drew my clothes," said 10-year-old Christina Mannino, who is in the fourth grade.
LEE, A PENNSYLVANIA native, used to watch her father sit on a stool and paint. He was taking a night class as a hobby, which she turned into a career after he sparked her interest.
"I thought he was famous," Lee said. She was five years old at the time. "I felt real cozy. I loved watching him. He was real happy as he painted."
In high school, Lee's art teacher told her she was the most creative art student he had taught in 25 years, but that she did not have good craftsmanship. Lee said she believed him, though now she realizes he could have said that to all of his students.
"He told me I was great," Lee said. "That spurred me on to do well at art."
Lee earned her bachelor's degree in 1975, then a master's degree in 1982. Her master's is in international curriculum and instruction from National University, in California.
Lee worked as an art teacher for 20 years before becoming a full-time mother during the past eight years. She said she promised herself she would return to her art after claiming she was too tired as a teacher, then too busy as a mother, to draw. She also wants to return to teaching.
Lee taught art in Japan and in the United Sates and trained art teachers from 1985-91 at Department of Defense schools in Germany and Loudoun County. She trained more than 450 teachers at conferences and workshops on drawing techniques, developing curriculums with an international scope and using art materials that do not pose a health hazard.
Lee did a similar project to the one at Seldens Landing when she taught at an Air Force base in Germany. In 1990, she drew student portraits for a 130-foot mural that had to be videotaped to capture the entire project.
FOR THE PAST YEAR, Lee has been working on word pictures, which involve a drawing and prose or poetry that creates an image from sensory details. She plans to compile the pictures and writings into a book.
"I try to articulate through word pictures, so art doesn't remain in a non-verbal world," Lee said.
Lee focuses on multi-cultural subjects and likes making observations of other people. She describes drawing as a process of beholding. "You behold the child, and you behold what comes out on the paper. You just hope they jive. If they jive, it's a good drawing," she said.
As Lee draws, she talks. She tries to guess the origin of the children she draws and looks at the lines of their eyes. She points out the features she likes as she spends about ten minutes drawing each student.
"That's wonderful when an adult takes the children one-on-one to compliment them," said Susan Browning, school principal. "They [the students] are just fascinated with the variety of features that can be seen. You often see where the eyes of the child are accurately captured or the shape of the nose."
"I think its really nice to see all the faces of Seldens Landing," Mannino said.
After Lee completes the portraits, she will compose poetry and prose about the students and ask them to come up with a title for the project.
"This school is so international, it's so incredible. I'm meeting all these wonderful children telling me stories about their backgrounds. It reminds me of my travels," Lee said. "We're all a combination of our ancestors. ... It's not just a drawing process. It's an incredibly rich experience."
The mural will stay up until the end of the school year.
"We're striving to be an arts-focused school. This is a big statement for us. Here we are. Here's what we look like," Browning said. "The kids are appreciating the diversity we have here."
"Kids like to see themselves, and it really helps their self-esteem," Lee said. "They feel famous."