Lee Godie (born Jamot Emily Godee; September 1, 1908 – March 2, 1994[1]) was an American self-taught artist who was active in Chicago during the late 1960s until around the early 1990s.
She could be seen sleeping outdoors in sub-zero temperatures, "on a concrete bench...clutching her large black portfolio case.
[4] Godie had a unique fashion style and could be seen wearing different swatches of fabric wrapped around herself or fur coats that were pieced together.
[8] An article about Godie in the Wall Street Journal alerted one of her daughters, Bonnie Blank, to where she was living.
In 1991, Blank was granted legal guardianship of her mother, who was suffering from dementia, and she moved her to a nursing home near Plano, Illinois.
[2] Godie's paintings were created in a variety of mediums which included watercolor, pencil, tempera, ballpoint pen, and crayon and on a number of surfaces such as canvas, poster board, sheets of paper and discarded window blinds.
[2] Artist and design editor at the Chicago Tribune, David Syrek says, "Lee's painting have an intensity that is not found in a great deal of outsider art.
[4] Also included in the array of art works Godie created are the black-and-white snapshots from photo booths she took of herself dressed up in different personae.
Of her photographs, Ralph Rugoff, director of the Hayward Gallery in London, says: "These images are very powerful on a number of levels.