Those of you from the
City of Big Shoulders are likely already very familiar with Outsider Artist Lee Godie's unique
oeuvre, but we just recently came across it, and had to share. While the resonances with Cindy Sherman are quite pronounced, Godie's technique was worlds away from that of Sherman. Lacking both a camera and a home, the itinerant artist relied throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s on a photo booth at a Chicago Greyhound bus station to make her absurdist self-portraits, and frequently worked upon their surface with ink pens to apply color and other flourishes. And unlike Sherman, whose youth and privilege can be read on the conventionally attractive body that she distorts for many of her portraits, Godie's especially sun-damaged skin bespeaks a certain mystery that no amount of postmodern play or dime-store makeup can negate.
What wonderful stories one can tell with some pocket change.
