Artist bio

Vivien is a Singapore-born, multi-passionate creative with two Master’s degrees, in Education and the Sacred Arts. A qualified life coach and certified spiritual director, she spent two decades as a lecturer, researcher, and consultant in business, education and human resource development before dedicating herself fully to art. Her lifelong curiosity about identity, purpose, and meaning now finds expression through mixed media painting. An acrylic artist since 2007, Vivien has refined her voice through continuous experimentation. She creates reflective, dynamic works that combine collage and water-based media, while also pursuing writing and bookbinding as parallel creative practices. Silence, stillness, and solitude form the heart of her process, nurturing her bold and evolving projects. Deeply inspired by nature’s textures and rhythms, she translates her observations into layered gestures that mirror her inner landscape. Her art traces the journey of her wonderings and wanderings—how her heart feels, her mind sees, and her soul imagines. Vivien has participated in numerous group exhibitions and her works are held in private collections in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Being consecutively shortlisted in the Emerging Artist category of the UOB Painting of the Year, Singapore’s premier art competition (2024 and 2025), marks a high point in her artistic journey. She is also the published author of two books: The Way of the Cross with St Joseph: A Virtues-Based Personal Devotion for Healing and Reconciliation, and To Be What We Are: Devotional Art Inspired by the Psalms; both of which feature her art as a means to aid prayerful reflection.

Title

Do You Love Me?

Medium/Genre

Painting

Artist Statement

Vivien Lee views art-making as an endless journey of discovery, where intuition, exploration, and deep learning converge. For two decades, she has immersed herself in diverse materials, styles, and processes, embracing the freedom to create organically.

Her practice begins intuitively, allowing her to work with abandon and express what feels most alive in the moment. Observation and reflection then guide her responses to evolving marks and colours, while silence and stillness become essential as layers build, evoking the mystery and depth of existence.

Language often weaves into Vivien’s work—whether as a starting point, embedded visual element, or final revelation. Through asemic writing or subtle textual layers, words inhabit both hidden and revealed spaces, and the emergence of a title signals that the piece has found its voice.

Visually, her works draw viewers in with their richness, complexity, and energy. Within the tension of each composition, a quiet harmony emerges, reflecting the universal human experience: the search for balance between vice and virtue, madness and meaning, peril and peace. Vivien’s art invites contemplation, offering a space where inner and outer worlds meet in layered, expressive dialogue.

How it fits into contest

This painting is a prayerful imagining of me as the sinful woman of Luke 7:36–50, seated at Jesus’s feet in a place of vulnerability and grace. Our encounter is marked by honest emotion and open receptivity. I come rough and raw, carrying questions of worthiness, unsure yet hopeful. I arrive as a blank slate, bringing my deepest sincerity and a longing for change—for a life made whole. I am not afraid. I want to give Him all that I have, all that I am.

We sit in silence for a while. Then He tells me, once again, the love story of my life—a story woven into the enduring continuity of God’s covenant with His people. It is not a private story, but one that echoes across salvation history, where mercy is offered again and again to those who dare to draw near.

The restrained palette of black and white evokes the timelessness of God’s mercy, steady through both light and dark moments of Scripture. The faithful and the flawed stand side by side here, equally invited. I am welcome. Against this quiet ground, the gold-gilded Cross stands radiant and unmissable. It is not decorative, but declarative—speaking of glory born through surrender, of love poured out without measure. Its luminosity reminds me that mercy is costly, sacred, and enduring.

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus neither dismisses sin nor allows it to have the final word. “Her many sins have been forgiven, for she has loved much.” At His feet, shame loosens its grip and fear gives way to peace. The Cross gathers this moment into itself, revealing that forgiveness precedes transformation. I rise not perfected, but freed—sent forth, like her, with the quiet assurance: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Credits

Nil

How to Purchase this Artwork

US$1000, plus shipping. 60 cm (W) x 90cm (H), Mixed media on wood, it will be shipped as is.

Other Goods & Services Available from this Artist

I am the author of two books which uses visio divina and my devotional art to encourage spiritual reflection.

1) The Way of the Cross with St Joseph: A Virtues-based Personal Devotion for Healing and Reconciliation (2024) offers a fresh perspective on Jesus’s final journey to the Cross through the personhood of his father, Joseph. Available on Amazon.

2) To Be What We Are: Devotional Art Inspired by the Psalms (2025) features twenty of my favourite paintings from the time I painted through all 150 Psalms. Each abstract work is a visual prayer, revealing what words alone cannot express.

For more information, see https://www.vivienleeart.com/published-books/
For copies, email: info@vivienleeart.com

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The 2026 Engage Art Contest will be accepting new artwork in January 2026!