Artist Series: Meet Lee Jardine

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Lee Jardine is as martial artist from Johannesburg whose work is a cross disciplinary practice between his martial arts and art making.

Lee will be one of the artists featured in the ORIENTation: The diaspora of East Asian identities in South Africa exhibition taking place in Johannesburg later this year.

Read more about why Lee, when and why he became an artist, what inspires him.

"The art world can be a really unforgiving career, but hard work and perseverance will eventually bring you success. A life as an artist can be spiritually uplifting. It is for me in any case." ~ Lee Jardine

Where were you born? Where do you live now?

I was born in and still live in Johannesburg.

When did you become an artist? What is your speciality?

I was always encouraged to draw when I was a child, but I only rediscovered my passion for art around 2014. I would say my speciality is leans towards more drawing, but now my work leans towards more towards a cross disciplinary practice between my martial arts and art making.

What art training/studying did you have or were you self-taught?

I suppose I was self taught, my parents would often draw with me when I was a child. I remember my father always inventing little drawing games for us to encourage my sister and I to draw. I was self taught, but I really wanted to learn more about art making so I enrolled into the Wits School of Arts where I learned many disciplines of art making and graduated in 2018.

Why did you become an artist?

I don’t have any particular reason for becoming an artist, I suppose that I have always been one most of my life practising the martial arts since I was the age of 6, which is now my current occupation teaching Karate, Ryukyu Kobujutsu (classical weapons training from Okinawa) and Tai Chi.

Source: Instagram @leechi333

What inspires you as an artist? Are there any artists that you admire?

If I can say what initially inspired me to be an artist? It was definitely the South African wildlife, my father often would often take us to the Kruger (where he would take some beautiful photographs) and my sister and I would always draw the animals. What inspires me now is just my love for drawing or any kind of art making depending on the subject matter. Where it is currently in dialogue with what it means to be a yellow person (east Asian per say) in South Africa. One of the biggest influences in my life is Professor Karel Nel, who makes incredibly beautiful pastel drawings where he works with astronomers around the world who are mapping out two square degrees of the universe. Karel is largely the reason why I am the artist that I am today through his instruction our first year drawing course, he changed the way I approach making art and the way I see art.

Please tell us about your art, for the upcoming exhibition? What do you hope to achieve through your artwork?

I am working on several pieces of work for the exhibition which ranges from photography, printmaking and painting, because of this it I wouldn’t want to give away too much on what I want to show but my work will talk about our “sense of belonging" or how we feel as the yellow diaspora in South Africa. I will say that one of my painting will be dedicated to my good friend Ming-Cheau Lin where the work is inspire by her book “Yellow and Confused.” If you have not read that book it really is a must.

Why do you think that this exhibition is so important?

For me, this exhibition is a platform for a kind of activism and raising awareness about being yellow in South Africa.

What advice would you give to young aspiring artists in South Africa?

Be humble and listen earnestly, you can learn a lot from anyone. Value yourself, you have put in years of effort into becoming an artist. Don’t let people take you for a ride asking you to do things for free. The art world can be a really unforgiving career, but hard work and perseverance will eventually bring you success. A life as an artist can be spiritually uplifting. It is for me in any case.