| Lee
S. Wallas (1911 - 2003)
Lee Wallas, born Feb 11, 1911 in St Louis; died August 14, 2003
in Portland, ME. Grew up in St Louis, studied art in Paris from
1928-1933; married May, 1936; two children. Led art classes in
St Louis where she earned her masters in fine arts from Washington
University; held numerous art shows in St Louis and the midwest.
In the 1970s, she became interested in art as therapy and earned
her Masters in Social Work from Washington University and practiced
in St Louis until 1994. She published two books on use of stories
in therapy, Stories for the Third Ear and Stories that Heal.
She announced in 1929 at the age of 18 that she was sailing
for Paris to become a famous artist. Lee lived in Montparnasse
and studied under artist Andre Lhote and Fernand Leger from 1929
- 1933. After returning to St. louis, she Married Seymour Jacob
Wallas in 1936. They lived in Manhattan and then in St. Louis
where her two children were raised. Lee was a successful painter
for 40 years, known as a people painter and a mood painter, she
exhibited her work in numerous one woman & two woman shows and
galleries in the Midwest and Florida.
In 1964 she won the Medal of Honor of the national Association
of Women Artists Exhibition held in the National Gallery in New
York City. She Exhibited her painting in the Missouri Pavilion
of the New York World's Fair in the same year. Her biography
was published in Who's Who in the Midwest an in Who's Who of
American Women. She studied a Washington University in St. Louis,
receiving a Bachelors of Fine Arts in 1962, and a master of Fine
Arts in 1967 at the age of 56.
In the early 1970's, her interests began to shift from painting
to psychotherapy. She trained under Janie Rhyne, a psychologist
who pioneered in art therapy. In 1979, at the age of 68, she
received her Master of Social Work Degree from Washington University
and began a successful clinical practice in St. Louis.
In 1985, she wrote and published her first book, Stories
for the Third Ear, a beast selling book of case histories
demonstrating the therapeutic use of hypnotic fables in psychotherapy.
In 1991 she wrote and published her second book, Stories
That Heal.
In 1994, she moved to Charlotte N.C. to be near her son and continue
her practice.
In 1996 she moved to Falmouth to be near her daughter. She officially
retired in 2000 when she was 89 years old.
Lee traveled extensively during her life, visiting Japan, China,
and Europe. When she was 85, she traveled with her son and his
family to East Africa, Visiting game parks with her grandson
who was working there at the time.
Lee will be remembered for her intelligence, talent, wit, style,
independence, love of life and adventure, and her smile. She
was a voracious reader, who was never without a book.
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