Originally from rural Eastern Iowa, Calee (she/they) is a DIY academic, designer, multimedia artist, and aspiring bass player. Calee works and plays in the fields they love most: art and design—the blurred line between those worlds is where she thrives. Calee is a maker in many mediums, working to blend handmaking and digital practices.

Calee’s creative interests include code as an artistic medium; design and mental health; queer and femme voices in art, design, and music; intersection of digital and physical production methods; and surface and repeat pattern design. As a designer and multimedia artist, Calee has won more than 25 awards for her work, including several Editor’s Pick awards from Minted for repeat surface pattern designs; a Best in Show award for their digital mixed media piece “Formerly Occupied Spaces;” and an Excellence in Teaching Award from Iowa State University.

Calee is currently an assistant professor of graphic design at Minnesota State University, Mankato and an instructor for Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s master of web and graphic design program. Their courses and work emphasize creative play, code as a design medium, design thinking, and design for good.

“Artists and scientists are both asking questions about the world, they’re just doing it in different ways”
Alex Braidwood
Director, Iowa Lakeside Lab Artists-in-Residence Program

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