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My Values
Love Creativity Accountability
To truly Love the World and the Self is to appreciate all of its aspects: the beautiful and the painful.
About Me:
Lee James Broadwood
When I was an infant, I climbed up high to the doorbell receiver to pull it off the wall, and I fell back. I could have hit my head on the hardwood floor, but someone broke my fall. I was saved. Jess, my miracle and my soul-dog would never leave my side, keeping me safe from danger.
We would spend every moment of the day together, her resting her head on my shoulder to watch Postman Pat with me, or nestling into one another, cuddling each other to sleep. We were — and are — inseparable.
As she always had my back, I would have hers as best I could. She was born on 5th November 1996 — Bonfire Night — and I would build sofa-cushion forts to protect her from the explosion sounds. Only 8 months apart, she was my guide, discovering the world beside me, teaching me the meaning of Love, unbounded by difference of species or form, and the value of being seen and wholly respected.
Two decades later, she is still with me. And now, instead of protecting her with cushion forts on 5th November, I can commemorate her life as the sky across the whole world ignites with colour. It's one of few solaces I have in her passing.
Before I knew how to truly speak this language, to write about the world, Jess was teaching me to experience and Love it, and not to value the world solely through a human lens.
My family shared this Love for the natural world, valuing all forms of life — animals, insects, and flowers — and would share stories with me about the 'old days': idyllic times when nature dominated view.
My Beautiful Young Jess Enjoying the Garden, with Her Garden Lead On to Stop Her Bolting!
Me and My Miracle Soul-Dog, Jess
My Hometown in the Olden Days
And though I LOVE London and could never live anywhere else, I can see what they mean... When I look at my local park, it's hard to comprehend that what I regard as beautiful forest spaces, glittering lakes, flower gardens, all teeming with wildlife, others regard as a regular dumpsite for takeaway boxes, baby nappies, broken glass bottles… We've impacted every aspect of natural life: now, the foxes, crows and squirrels scavenge through the trash for food; mites, ants and flies get stuck in coffee syrups and yoghurt pots; and the koots, mallards and swans wade through supermarket bags and disposable picnicware. All these creatures trying to survive in the wake of our ploughing through their homes, oblivious. The destruction's on our doorsteps, not just the news.
My Local Park Now
At its heart, my work, regardless of genre and tone, deals with valuing the overlooked, and identity: finding your voice and creating your own narrative in a world where you don't really fit — just like nature in the cityscape. It's about celebrating uniqueness and carving your own meaning of life while reflecting on how truly beautiful and mesmirisng the world is, how full of Love it is, depsite the trauma and pain. It's about finding the fireworks amongst the sorrow and grief. It's my calling to share the Love that Jess taught me with the rest of the world through my art.
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In The Fisherman's Daughter, it's about Josie O'Aherne finding her own voice and truth in a town steeped in tradition and myth.
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In 101 Poems, it's about reflecting on the beauties of life amongst the horror, romanticising pain in the knowledge that it cannot exist without joy.
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In She, it's about the meaning of the individual, the importance of self-care in a bleak world of isolation and pain.
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And in Crazy Spy Lady, it's about knowing your worth and skill in a world that doubts you.
I hope in my works you find new colours of Love, new appreciations for the magic the world can bring, and belief in yourself and in your voice — the same Love, magic and self-belief that Jess brings me.
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