Youmee Lee, a Korean American artist, creates a whimsical, painterly body of work, leading viewers to fantastical environments embedded with Asian elements and sign language poetry. Youmee has been exploring Asian folklore/mythology and American Sign Language poetry to evoke poetic imagination. She has been drawing since she was little, and visual art contributed to her formative years. She recently created children’s books partially based on her childhood memories and inspired by Asian folklore and American Sign Language (ASL). The books are published by GU Press.
Youmee earned an MFA in Film and Animation from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MA in Deaf Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently pursuing her New York State Visual Arts teacher certification through Pratt Institute.
She is a certified Teacher of the Deaf in New York, teaching deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Brooklyn, NY. Having a passion for accessibility to arts and cultural events, she serves as a consultant and Associate Director of Interpreting for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows.