RH Lee

About RH

• Grew up in Berkeley, CA in a family of academics—admits she is one of the only people in her entire extended family that didn’t pursue an academic discipline.
• At age 7, she took a kids’ carpentry class, which sparked her interest in art and building things.
• Attended Brown University in Rhode Island where she received her degree in art and philosophy (semiotics).
• While in college, she would build sets for the theater department, which she says satisfied her interests in visual arts and literature/philosophy.
• After graduating, she moved back to California, where she continued working as a scenic carpenter and got a job building interactive science exhibits for the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco.
• She took a three week summer course in fine woodworking at College of the Redwoods, which was instrumental in improving her skills and transitioning her craft from scenic work to fine furniture.
• In 2008, she moved to Los Angeles where she took a job running the Offerman Woodshop, a woodworking collective owned by actor and comedian Nick Offerman.
• She is also the program director of the non-profit Would Works and teaches woodworking in the School of Art at California State University, Long Beach.