Lee Scotthempson is a multi-media
artist with a broad range of interests bouncing between painting, sculpture,
animation, film and poetry. In essence her work is a bricolage, and she plays with
the spaces between art, writing and design. Her practices have come to
encompass a variety of ways to portray her understanding (or lack thereof), of
the absurdity of humanity and are a reaction to an array of social
dis-illusions; some situated in humor and others a little more fist-to-the-gut
like.
She teaches drawing and
illustration and two-and three-dimensional studies to Fashion Design students
at the Durban University of Technology. She is fortunate to have taught drawing
and creative approaches to drawing for design in a variety of programs over the
years; programs such as Graphic Design, Textile Design and Jewellery Design at
the Durban University of Technology.
In the 80’s when she received her
artistic training, the paintings were grounded in social realism. She sought to
tell of the social and political injustices of the time; the canvases were a
voice through which to speak of the prejudices of the apartheid system. In the
early 90’s Scotthempson reflected upon societal expectations of women’s roles,
and how media and society had affected her perceptions of self. Post 2000’s her
work has been influenced by design rhetoric but has stayed within a narrative social
voice mode.
She admits she has lightened up
over the years and her current practice as artist and social commentator is
quirky, sometimes absurd and at times deeply revealing of both self and
society.