About

LET'S MAKE IT OFFICIAL. ABOUT ME IN THE THIRD PERSON:

Monica Lee Rich is a contemporary romantic painter living and working in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Born in Vicenza, Italy, she studied graphic art before pursuing a career as an international flight attendant. Years of travel and time spent wandering museums around the world quietly formed her artistic language.
These experiences shaped her worldview and continue to inform a practice devoted to capturing humanity through a romantic, contemporary lens.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT. VIBE. THE REASON I PAINT.

"As a painter, I move in and out of abstraction, freeing myself and shaking off anything I may have constructed as taboo, in the hopes of having my work balance power with poetry, rigor with vulnerability. In that spirit, my practice continues to evolve, shifting between the romantic and the cerebral as I seek a language that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. My work is centered on the sensual and poetic; I want to invite the viewer to linger in the intimacy of that. My work is not about being static, I desire to imbue it with an otherworldliness that I feel when I am creating it. I am very interested in the marks created on the canvas and how they can portray movement, which can take the form of chaos, growth, explosive trauma, erotic passion, or sorrow. This human story, which repeats itself even as humanity evolves, fascinates me. The marks I make are a result of how I feel humanity, pulsing, carrying momentum, losing it, and finding it again. ” -MLR

A LITTLE MORE BACKSTORY

My background was in professional illustration, with clients including Hatchette Books, Abrams, HarperCollins, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2012, I saw an opportunity in the creative business space and founded and hosted the podcast Smart Creative Women, where I interviewed over 300 women in the business of creativity.

I illustrated live on the runway at London Fashion Week and Shanghai Fashion Week before deciding to step away from Illustration. This was the turning point that defined my career and my path forward. I have never looked back. (Although I love a good loose. elegant fashion illustration to this day!)

Today, I curate and write about the creative process at THE SMART CREATIVE on SUBSTACK, which acts as her studio newsletter. When you sign up on this website, you may get an occasional article on the creative process of an artist.

Portfolio site : MonicaLeeRich.com