Jake Lee was born and raised in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. After high school, he served four years in the United States Army with one tour to Iraq. After ending his term of service, he attended the University of Kentucky and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts with a concentration in printmaking and graphic design. Additionally, he holds a Master of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Iowa. He has spent time as a Lecture at Berea College in Kentucky and an Instructor of Record at the University of Iowa. His artworks have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, most notably at the Northern Illinois University Art Museum, Anne Wright-Wilson Fine Art Gallery at Georgetown College in Kentucky, Art Link Gallery in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Wharepuck Art Gallery in Kerikeri, New Zealand, Inner Mongolia University in Hohhot, China, and the Awagami Paper Factory in Tokushima, Japan. In 2016, he was awarded a First-Place award in Speedball Art Products' New Impressions Printmaking competition and has also been awarded the Leola Bergman Fellowship, Beall Fellowship, and the Mauricio Lasansky Memorial Scholarship from the University of Iowa. His works have been collected by the Georgetown College Museum of Art in Kentucky, Zuckerman Museum of Art at Kennesaw State University, and the Awagami Paper Factory in Tokushima, Japan.