Making sense of the world
Story: Christina Ongley. Photo: Cody Fox
For as long as LeeLee West can remember, art has been an anchor – a thing of certainty and safety, a way to make sense of the world.
“I was a highly sensitive child,” said the Hervey Bay artist, graphic designer and art director.
“I was drawn to illustration and writing short stories from a young age, and I was always hand-drawing covers of my school books.
“I had all these big feelings in a small body, and I was trying to find a way to express all of it.”
It was in high school that she was steered onto the earliest stages of her artistic voyage.
“A careers counsellor said to me, ‘you have to be graphic designer’,” LeeLee said.
“But it wasn’t until I did a Diploma of Visual Arts and started seeing the work I could produce that I had confidence to say I was an artist.”
She need not ever doubt again. Following a range of roles including an arts administration traineeship at the Hervey Bay Regional Gallery, and branding and graphic design jobs with printers and design agencies, she’s spent the past decade freelancing as LeeLee Creative and discovering new and interesting waters.
There are plenty of pieces of LeeLee’s work around the region you’ve probably seen without realising – external signage illustrations in the windows of The Story Bank, Enzo’s on the Beach branding, a series of illustrations and murals throughout the Hervey Bay Library, and a range of tourism-related projects both locally and interstate.
“With the corporate work, there are hand-drawn elements in all of it – that’s my style,” she said.
“I try to bring drawing into everything. It warms up the corporate environment and helps to tell human stories.
“But I also love being part of groups where we get to do things together. I love helping others to unearth their ‘why’ and finding the bits that matter the most. If I can find the core of it, I can do a good job.”
More recently, LeeLee has taken artistic collaboration to a new level by specialising in large-scale murals, building wraps and visual identity design for mental health crisis support spaces across Queensland, including The Oasis at Hervey Bay Hospital.
And in so doing, she’s been able to create works that give others a feeling of safety, of calm in a storm.
The artwork projects are co-designed with mental health consumers and staff, who contribute words and visuals they hope will one day resonate with others in a time of crisis.
LeeLee then curates those contributions, extracting individual elements and painstakingly placing them, piece by piece, into something cohesive and meaningful, before adding colour to truly bring it to life.
“What interests me about co-design is how it’s so many people’s hearts and voices involved; it’s not just mine,” she said.
“It’s just the most rewarding, purposeful, interesting work.
“Essentially, I’m helping our workshop participants to start a conversation with a person who will approach a crisis support space, and convince them to take that first step inside the door. And that’s helping to save and change lives.”
Earlier this year, art came to LeeLee’s rescue again when faced with one of the biggest challenges of her life – losing her dad, Peter.
“Last year I was one of six facilitators as part of an Arts in Health pilot program, which was all about no-pressure approaches to art making – just putting pen to paper, finding joy and calm,” she said.
This story appears in the March 2025 edition of Fraser Coast Scene, our monthly guide to What's On across our Cultural Services venues.
The creation of this story and photography was funded by Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). RADF is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Fraser Coast Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
