Marilee

Marilee

Teacher

As it happens, I am an individual who was blessed to be born into an extremely artistic family and as my identity has developed, drawing has continued to be a part of it. Colorfully vivid oil paintings of women in ornate, detailed garb dress my family’s home walls. Created by my late uncle, a prolific painter of humble means, these paintings were studied, copied, admired and were my initial inspirations.

Life experiences have brought me down a winding path of both working as a professional textile artist and educator. After graduating from California College of Arts with a BFA in Painting and Drawing here in Oakland, I became an AmeriCorps Member and worked for the non-profit feminist organization Girls Inc. In Brooklyn, NY where I lived for 6 years, I created fabric designs for the fashion industry and before that and most recently, I have worked in a variety of educational settings. I have worked at a daycare center, preschool, summer camps, afterschool programs and teacher classrooms, taking on the roles such as a teacher’s assistant, recreation instructor, reading literacy instructor and art instructor.

Overall, I feel that working with children never feels like “work” it feels more like joining them in their adventure of discovering the world around them, continuously taking in new experiences and knowledge. I hope to encourage an environment where children can act on their newfound ideas from experimenting with their artistic materials and that they can feel the empowerment that comes from their ideas and what they have created.