Godie lived on the streets of Chicago by choice. She considered herself to be a great French Impressionist. She sold her paintings on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago. She kept her paintings in a locker in the Greyhound bus terminal.

Godie painted on objects as found: paper, discarded window shades, etc. She did not like fair haired people and often refused to sell to them or charged them more than dark haired people.

Thousands of paintings later, Lee Godie had gallery exhibitions and museum shows. She had become an icon in the Chicago art world. Though some have pondered the orientation of her sanity, few would question her impact as an artist in the city. Perhaps as powerful as her paintings, Godie's tenacious originality has continually reminded artists, collectors, and casual observers that life and art can be invented, and not merely emulated.