MY JOURNEY

Becoming an artful mommy

Hi! I'm Monica Lee. I'm a painter, a teacher and a mom. I earned my BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and my M.Ed from UC Santa Barbara. I love portraiture and landscapes. My favorite artists are Alice Neel and Vincent Van Gogh. If you know these artists you know that I love art that is loose, colorful and full of feeling! To check out my paintings, go to my gallery page​.

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I was a high school art teacher in San Diego for 14 years. After I had my two kids I decided to stay home to spend my days getting creative with them. My kids are sweet, fun, inquisitive little people! I'm married to Mr. Lee, a fun loving, super creative guy, who also has a love for the arts. We have an orange kitty named Hei Hei.

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Being a high school art teacher was a career that gave me a sense of purpose, connection and creativity. It also gave me a birds eye view of the end product of childhood education - some children were confident and creative, and some children struggled with a fear of failure. Fast forward to having children of my own and I stepped into the beginning of the education process. I learned to see the world through the eyes of my children and in doing so I came to see the immense and innate sense of creativity that all children are born with.

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I made it my passion to develop and nurture creativity in children and to help other parents and teachers do the same. I started writing about my experiences, my thoughts, and curious wonderings about creativity and our world. I founded ArtfulMommy with a mission to help others bring art and creativity into the lives of children.

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For the past three years I taught art in my children's elementary school. Teaching K-6 was a whole new world for me. The excitement and eagerness to learn, experiment and try new things in elementary aged children is astounding. Creativity is bursting out of the walls in our elementary school! 

I feel blessed to have had the privilege to be an art teacher to so many creative souls over the last 18+ years. When I'm not in the classroom you'll find me outside painting the beauty of nature or in the studio painting portraits.

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Take some time to explore my blog, comment and add your own thoughts to the conversation, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments.