Hi there
Good to see you here :)
My name’s Ja-yoon — please call me Ja! — and I love creating vibrant, colorful artworks that are inspired by my heritage and everyday life. I especially enjoy weaving traditional Korean imagery and motifs into my work and reimagining them with a modern flair.
Growing up, I had always felt limited and insecure in expressing my identity as a Korean-American. Looking back, each of my artworks now feels like a love letter to that awkward teenager, who tried to reconcile her background with her evolving identity.
Thanks for being here, and I hope my works resonate with you.
About
Ja-yoon Lee (이자윤) is a Korean-American illustrator and painter based in New York. With former experience in the healthcare and tech industries, Ja-yoon revisited her childhood dream of creating art amid the Covid pandemic in 2021.
Born in Seoul, she immigrated to the US at the age of eight and grew up in eastern North Carolina. Her upbringing within the two cultures plays a pivotal role in her work, which explore themes of identity and heritage. Ja-yoon’s work is also inspired by her childhood memories, traditional Korean motifs & designs, nature, and history.