Leslie Cote has spent her life in the halls of the Arts. A talented soul — teaching children to appreciate, soak up and explore everything artistic. She has been teaching in elementary schools on the shores of West Haven, Connecticut for over 23 years and was in fact chosen as the teacher of the year for the City Of West Haven in the year 2000. She has also won The Unsung Hero Award for her school back in 2004.
Leslie has always been involved in the Arts starting at age 4 when she took up painting and drawing and continuing by taking any and all Art classes offered at her High School. She then moved on to get a teaching degree and graduated with a Fine Arts Masters degree from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT in 1991. She has also been a private Art Instructor for the past 20 years.
The inspiration to start knitting came from Leslie's sister Debbie (an avid and incredibly talented knitter herself) who taught Leslie to knit almost 10 years ago. Leslie took an instant liking to it and it can be presumed to say that she was hooked but that leaves a feeling that the needle artisan's correct terminology is being messed with! Leslie decided to share her love for knitting with the kids in her school by offering knitting clubs for the past 10 years - she often speaks of the faces of the children as they learn to knit and of the bonds they form with Aunts and Grandmas and other relatives when they bring their needles and projects home and show that they too can whip up some magic with the fibers!
Throughout the years, Leslie has found herself tangled up in all the mediums of Fine Art - sometimes you can find her up to her elbows in oils or spinning the potter's wheel and other times nestled up with her favorite box of pastels. But most of her artistic friends agree that Leslie has found her niche in the beautiful knitting-related drawings that have turned into the greeting cards you find at this site. You can see the love she has for knitting in the drawings - I think she describes it as finding the inner child that she thought she may have lost - and I think that is what many of the best artists in history have done........found the inner child and held on tight.
She continues to knit and create these beautiful drawings......and now with an appreciative audience buying these cards - Leslie is again doing what she does best - sharing the Arts and her love of the Arts with all....