Michael Harwood Lee was born in Hong Kong and relocated to New York City with his family at the age of 7, but he still considers New York to be his hometown. He came from a family of non-artists and art was not encouraged at home. Despite that Michael has been drawing and making art since a very young age. He currently lives in Iowa but studied art and design in NYC, then worked as a Fashion Designer for 20 years and as an Interior Designer for 10. Michael did not pursue painting professionally, even though he was a Fine Arts major at the School of Visual Arts 30 years earlier. Although he never stopped being an artist at heart, he left his brushes behind in the pursuit of earning a living. When the pandemic hit, he realized he wanted to resurrect a part of himself that had been long lost.  So, in the Autumn of his life Michael started putting down on canvas all the imagery that has been dancing around in his head and has been pouring his life into his art ever since.