 Wonder Lee Assembles an
Artistic World Out of Found Objects
By Robert Waddell, January 22, 2012
In 2009, poet and artist Wonder Lee was living in a small apartment in Queens. At the time she didn’t have enough funds to furnish or decorate her walls with art. So, she did the next best thing, what any creative, resourceful person would do: she created her own art.
First it began with a table she constructed then she kept on going, she said. Using found objects like used tape cassettes, discarded television husks and vinyl records, Wonder Lee created witty and intelligent works that she says sprang from her imagination and the cast off items themselves.
“The art work starts from the objects I find,” said Wonder Lee. “I see an object that may attract me then I ask myself ‘what kind of use can I get out of this object?’ Pretty much that’s how the ideas start flowing.”
Objects are donated, found, picked-up from the sidewalk or left in the trash.
Wonder Lee, who grew up in the Bronx, triumphed a year later, with her assembled art, in her first gallery show. She calls her work assemblage art because she assembles found objects into her creative vision.
 Not willing to reveal her given name, which comes out sounding as Lee she said, the artist was trying to decide what to call herself once when a friend said something to the effect of “…Lee I wonder how….”and the name sprang from her friend’s found words, much like how Wonder Lee creates her artwork.
“I’m a self-taught artist,” she said. “It’s like making sculpture. I am not a visual artist who can sit here and draw you a portrait but I’m more into the assembly part of the art, how I put the items together.”
Besides a youthful name, Wonder Lee looks decades earlier away from her actual mid-30s age. Along with sporting large black rimmed glasses, spiked hair and a bow tie, which she creates and sells out of old Legos, the artist has perfect pitch cool nerdy swag.
“…Not many artists are doing what she does,” said painter and friend Nelson Santiago, “very original and inventive….”
Youthfulness aside, Wonder Lee’s art is smart, provocative, whimsical and charming – all reflecting the artist’s deeper self. With a twinge of public service in her work and the need to recycle to save the planet, Wonder Lee’s art has what the Punk rockers call ‘Do It Yourself’ with a “Positive Mental Attitude’ attitude.
“The total point of my artwork is teaching people to use what they have and be less wasteful,” said Wonder Lee. “This is the beauty in all objects.”
Not knowing how to draw formally or classically trained are not encumbrances to this fabulous young artist’s works, which can be seen now until February 8th at Sustainable NYC, 139 Avenue A at 9th street, in Manhattan.
 “She’s trying to make a difference while creating art,” said friend and photographer Samantha Morales. “How she turns every day items into art is very amazing.”
There’s a quiet ferociousness to Wonder Lee’s urban folk art that contains elements of Romare Bearden’s collages, Keith Harring’s expressive man with dog characters while harking back to the surrealists of the early 20th century. Her art is not a direct one-two punch to the solar plexus but a quiet expression of a remarkable talent who sees discarded objects in wondrous new ways. Everyone is in on the humor giving viewers an opportunity to reflect and see the world, if only briefly, through Wonder Lee’s thoughtful, keen caring eyes.
And her latest book of poetry titled “Maxed Out” as in “you’ve reached your limit and you can’t take it any more,” she said. In the poem titled “#92,” she writes “A gentle breeze passes me by/Beautiful/yet untouchable on the outside/Captivates me/like a dream you don’t want to wake up from/Can’t stop thinking/Can’t stop wondering…”
This Wonder Lee poem might be filled with the uncertainty of love but it is her found object sculpture that squarely sees a new world out of an old discarded one.
“I think there’s creativity in all of us,” said Wonder Lee, “it’s all about finding it and tapping into it so I think the universe imbeds these ideas in your mind and it’s up to you to apply them or let them lay dormant. I get ideas about what would look good with these objects then I just go with it.”
Photos by Samantha Morales
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