In the Press
Life in the Finger Lakes, April 2, 2026: George Cassidy Payne, Making Haudenosaunee Peace Through Art.
Read the article in Life in the Finger Lakes
CITY Magazine (Rochester): Haudenosaunee art show marks America’s 250th with a living vision of peace, featuring Mother of Peace and quoting Kristin.
Now on view: Solo show at Willow Valley Cultural Center
Twenty works, including large florals, Ascension Code alcohol-ink abstracts, graphite portraits and plein air paintings, are on view at the Willow Valley Communities Cultural Center Art Gallery, 900 Willow Valley Lakes Drive, Willow Street, PA, October 6 – November 19, 2026. Highlights include Bouquet, and the Tiger Considers, Little Lambs and Storm Over Race Ave, Lancaster. Non-residents are welcome by appointment: call Jen Rynier at the Cultural Center, 717-464-6438.
Orenda: Seneca Art & Magic
On view October 2 – November 28, 2026
Lancaster Art Vault, 100 North Queen Street
U Gallery, 1st floor
For Exhibition Catalog, click here
Plein Air Plus at LBIF
Kristin was one of 50 painters selected by juror Peter Trippi, Editor-in-Chief of Fine Art Connoisseur, for the 11th Annual Plein Air Plus at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts & Sciences in Loveladies, NJ. The exhibition runs September 12 – November 1, 2026.
Cornelia Magazine: "Living Peace in Every Thread and Husk"
Cornelia Magazine, the visual arts review published by the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, discussed Mother of Peace in its essay on the Hodinöhsö:ni' Art Show at Ganondagan. The essay is by George Payne. The piece describes the portrait of Kristin's great-grandmother, Seneca Clan mother Nora "Rocking Boat," with its clan symbols, Hodinöhsö:ni' teachings and family-memory objects, as showing how peace "lives in personal relationships and the quiet transmission of knowledge within families.”
Featured in the Seneca Nation’s SNI Official Newsletter
The Seneca Nation’s official newsletter highlighted the Original Peoples Podcast’s artist spotlights from the Hodinöhsö:ni’ Juried Art Show at Ganondagan. Kristin Witbeck Lee (Seneca Nation, Beaver Clan) was one of two Seneca artists featured, alongside Penny Minner. The episode is on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hodinöhsö:ni’ Juried Art Show • April 8-11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mother of Peace, oil on linen, 24×30” available
My painting of my great Grandmother, Nora Rocking Boat, will be exhibited at Ganondagan in April.
Excerpted from Life in the Finger Lakes Magazine
For the first time in its history, the Ganondagan State Historic Site’s annual Haudenosaunee Art Show carries a unifying theme: “What is a Haudenosaunee Peace?” Kristin Asche, lead curator of the 8th annual exhibition, sees it as both a lens for reflection and a challenge for artists.
Ganondagan is more than a historic site. It is a living repository of memory and presence. For artist Kristin Witbeck Lee, showing work there is both a personal pilgrimage and a cultural dialogue.
“My Haudenosaunee name, given to me by my great-grandmother, is Ganä:gah:is — One Who Splashes Water,” Lee shares. “I still live with what this could mean. To be playfully disruptive? Cleansing? Water always moves, and all living things move and change constantly, adapting to the environment, flowing to an ocean where all merges again. I try to work with this.”
Ganondagan has long been central to Lee’s personal and artistic life. “It is a sort of Mother Country for me,” she explains. “I grew up with a Seneca father, Luis R. Lee, of the Beaver Clan, visiting family in the Seneca Territories of Allegany and Cattaraugus. I learned so much there. But there is also pain — from the Kinzua Dam tragedy, which affected so many, including my family. I often thought about all that had been burned and buried under the tomb of a lake.”
Lee’s connection deepened over years of visits when her father worked as an artisan during the summer festival. “I fell in love with it,” she says. “I had dreams of Jigonsaseh, New Face, in my early thirties. I grew up with stories of No Face — the girl whose pride lost her face and wandered anonymously doing service. But I realized the figure in my dream was New Face, the Mother of Peace, the first to hear and accept the message of the Great Peacemaker. That listening, that clarity, that conscious attention — that is the human practice, living by the tenets of the good Mind, making Creation more beautiful and livable. She is a wonderful role model.”
Exhibiting at Ganondagan is both an honor and a homecoming. “Visiting that land felt like visiting a grandmother,” Lee recalls. “I’ve been in two juried shows there, but bringing the portrait of my great-grandmother, Nora Rocking Boat — Seneca Clan mother and representative of the Mother of Peace — to this sacred place open to all is deeply meaningful.”
Lee’s practice draws on personal history, cultural continuity, and contemporary expression. She seeks to encounter the essence in all beings and express this through color, form, and material so it can be a living experience repeatedly. Portrait commissions are a focus. “Everyone needs to feel seen,” she explains. “A from-life portrait not only memorializes but can heal and continue to inspire. I also offer energy portraits from intuition; these are often striking and treasured by my patrons.”
Currently, Lee is developing a new series of large abstracted watercolor landscapes inspired by spiritual beings and ancestors experienced through the life of the land. She grew up on two worlds — on the territories and in the suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut. Her ancestor Cornplanter was a ‘half-breed’ and a great leader. Though she often felt she didn’t fully fit in either world, she sensed an opportunity to bridge them and foster understanding.
“The culture is ours, but its beauty and principles can belong to everyone,” she says. Her work combines historical and contemporary methods from around the world while remaining rooted in the traditional craft arts of her family.
Mother of Peace received an Honorable Mention at the 2026 Hodinöhsö:ni’ Art Show at Ganondagan.