Nelson Hee Visual artist

At an early age, I preferred visual rather than written or verbal communiqués. I won my first regional award in the 3rd grade. I received the National Scholastic Award for Achievement in Art in high school. My very first show out of art school happened to be an international print show – The World Print Competition 1973 -- the first show of its kind in United States. The jurors were: Riva Castlemen, Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Masayoshi Homma, Deputy Director of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and Zoran Krisnik, founder and director of The Biennial of Graphic Art, in Ljubljana, Slovenia (part of Yugoslavia until 1991). I began showing in group shows in museums and galleries in United States as well as parts of Europe. As a "contemporary printmaker" my art represented USA during its Bicentennial and showed in the National Gallery at the Smithsonian. During that time, I began taking pre-med courses. I was accepted to be one of three medical illustration (biomedical communications) candidates at the University of California, San Francisco within the School of Medicine for that particular class year.
A recipient of educational and advertising/design awards, I've held senior designer/illustrator and senior management positions in both the private and public sectors. Throughout my career, I’ve illustrated surgical procedures for medical abstracts and journals, designed and illustrated textbooks/books for professionals/students/consumers, designed food packaging labels, created/designed branding for companies/towns/municipalities, was the creative direction for corporations and created information graphics for litigation firms/attorneys.

After 35 years of being a commercial designer/illustrator, I decided to embark on creating my personal visualizations to share with others what I see and maybe elicit an emotion that is undefined or undiscovered – or maybe, just to sit and stare. To show what can't be seen and to talk about it without uttering a single word.

I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with distinctions in Print and Drawing from California College of the Arts (formerly California College of Arts and Crafts) and an MA in Medical Illustration (Biomedical Communications) from UC San Francisco, School of Medicine. I was a board-certified medical illustrator for 20 years.

Born and raised in Hawaii, I have been living in the SF Bay Area for over 40 years – mostly in Marin County, California.

A Couple of Articles and Media:

Hotbed Benefit: https://youtu.be/rmOnMeqAL3k

https://www.artfixdaily.com/artwire/release/994-fuson-art-announces-the-winners-of-the-6th-quarterly-international

https://www.marinij.com/2017/06/09/tiburon-artist-draws-attention-with-water-inspired-exhibit/amp/

To view samples from my past, go to "Past Illustrations and Designs" in Portfolios.