After completing a B.A. degree in Fine Art at La Sierra University in Riverside, California, Lee continued his studies at USC where he learned the various crafts of filmmaking and earned an M.F.A. degree in Cinema. He went on to make documentary films working as a film and video editor and writer. Some examples: One Ringy Dingy, a training video on phone etiquette featuring Lily Tomlin as her signature character Ernestine. Horse Sense For People, a TV pilot hosted by renowned "horse whisperer" Monty Roberts. No Greater Love, a feature-length PBS documentary about human organ donation and transplant received an Emmy award in 2005 for his work as writer and editor.

In 2007, Lee returned to the traditional art mediums of drawing and painting. He joined the Oil Painters of America, the California Art Club, the Mid-Valley Arts League and the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association. In April of 2008 he exhibited a one-man show of landscape oil paintings at the Claremont Forum Gallery in Claremont, California. In 2008 he had two paintings accepted into the San Marino "Art Matters" juried group show at the Huntington Library Botanical Center. In the 2009 San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Plein Air Show he won First Place award for Ducks at Pioneer Park. Additionally, In the 2009 Fall Art Show, his painting Valyermo Poplars was given Best of Show award and the Henry and Iris Cruse Award. Further art studies have included studies in figurative drawing in the studio of Charles Hu and figurative painting in the studio of Joseph Todorovitch. In 2010, his painting Circular Cactus was accepted into the Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils held at the Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona and his painting Red Fruit was exhibited in the OPA Western Regional Exhibition at Mountain Trails Gallery in Jackson, Wyoming. Additionally his paintings were juried into a plein air exhibit at Long Beach Art Museum in California. Recently he has accepted commissions for large landscape and seascape paintings and continues to exhibit throughout California and the western United States.