Migration has long been a defining thread in Maia Ruth Lee’s life and work. Born in Busan, South Korea and largely raised in Nepal, where her parents worked as Bible translators, her early years were shaped by constant movement and cultural fluidity.
Her studies took her to Seoul and Vancouver, followed by formative years in New York City—and later Salida, Colorado—where her art practice deepened alongside her evolution into motherhood (her son, Nima, is 8).
Now based in San Francisco, where she is pursuing a master’s degree in Migration Studies, Maia continues to expand her acclaimed Bondage Baggage series, exploring the push and pull of migration through paintings, sculptures, and video.
With a busy season ahead—including work slated for a bevy of international art fairs—Maia invited us into her studio in the Richmond District, where life unfolds in tandem with her husband, photographer Peter Sutherland, and their anime-loving son. There, we spoke about a subject that clearly animates her just as deeply as her work: motherhood.
In the conversation ahead, she reflects on the hallucinatory wonder of pregnancy, the long arc of postpartum healing, and the profound, still-unfolding transformation of becoming a mother.
“It’s perhaps the single most transformative experience, yet I still don’t quite know how to articulate it,” she says. “I feel more myself than ever—more authentic—but at the same time, I’m completely changed. It opened up access to my deepest inner complexities, and I’m still uncovering them as I watch this child grow before my eyes.”
—Katie Hintz-Zambrano
