Bio

Born in North Carolina in 1966, and trained in fine art and music all through her youth, Lee Bishop wrote and illustrated stories when she was eight, won local and regional awards for drawing all through school, and sang in a punk band at seventeen.  Gifted academically and as a visual artist, the plan was for her to attend college and make a living in commercial art.  But that idea held no appeal to a rebel, and fine art had lost its sheen.  So she took a 20-year break.

Her search for self went all over the place, including Arizona from 1999 to 2005.  That’s where she picked up her dad's old camera and a paintbrush while finally attending college majoring in Psychology and Religious Studies.  Her Art History and Humanities classes were a great inspiration and reawakened something inside of her.  After returning to NC due to illness, the desire and purpose to create films became clear to her through dreams.  It was not until three years later that she began working in that medium.

Bishop currently lives in Chapel Hill, NC in the southern United States.  She makes art, short films, and various writings while she figures out where to go next. 

Artist’s statement

My current body of work is about experimenting with form, color, sound, and digital video techniques to express my inner self and the way I see the world.  Each piece is created out of my mood and focus for that period of time, and because those change, my styles and themes are varied.  However, there is a common thread of personal spirituality in an urban setting, which reflects my own daily reality.

I believe in spontaneity, emotion, color, and light.  I strive to communicate myself as openly as possible in whatever discipline I am working, be it video, painting, music, or writing.  Technical perfection or a slick appearance is of lesser importance to me, and I work with whatever resources I have available at the time.

Artists whom I find particularly inspirational include groundbreaking innovators and personal explorers, such as Fellini, Antonioni, Tarkovsky, Lynch, Dorsky, Van Gogh, and Rothko.  Throw in the Sex Pistols and you have a pretty good picture of where I come from and what I wish to accomplish--to give the world something new and original with passion and beauty. 

-Lee Bishop