Artist’s Statement:
I am a fiber artist whose works explore the interconnections between nature and culture through the use of geological, biological and historical patterns. “Doorway/Desert Garden" combines shapes of the human body with shapes of the earth, while the "River Dragon" pillow reflects dragon mythology and geology.
Airplane travel and geology classes sparked my interest in aerial landscapes. Later, Bruce Chatwin’s book Songlines, which follows a native Australian clan along a physical and cultural journey, inspired me to address the connection between land and spirit in my artwork. Hand quilting the pieces is an exercise in meditation – the rows of stitches become my own barely visible tracks or “songlines” progressing across a metaphorical landscape. The dimensional landscapes in my works are built from layers of quilt batting. I use acrylic paint to color the fabric. In my quilting, I respond not only to the painted patterns, but also follow paint drips and creases in the fabric, treating these as elements of a natural/cultural landscape.
Art shown in:
·
Touching
Fiber Arts (book) by
Carol Ikard and Jacque Smith, Texas Museum of Fiber Arts
2012.
·
Water invitational and juried show at The
Arts Alliance Center at Clear Lake, Nassau Bay, Texas. August
2008.
·
Houston
Area Fiber Artists annual juried show at the Art Institute of Houston. July
2007.
·
Texas
Museum of Fiber Arts juried exhibit at the State Capitol in Austin. May
2007.
·
Side by
Side juried show at
TAACCL. September 2006.
·
Landscape, Seascape,
Dreamscapeinvitational and juried show at
TAACCL. February 2006.
·
Open
Juried Exhibition at
TAACCL. Summer ’05.
·
My
Secret Garden juried
quilt exhibit at the American Quilters’ Society Show in Paducah, Kentucky.
1996.
·
Individual
and group exhibits at the Jewish Community Center Association Gallery and J Café
in St. Louis, Missouri. Mid-1990s.
·
“Amish
Adaptation," a commissioned quilt, appeared in the Summer 1988 edition of
Country Quilts magazine.
Leslie was born in St. Louis, Missouri and recently returned to the area after living in Houston, Texas. She studied at Washington University’s School of Fine Arts in St. Louis in the early 1970s, earned an AB in Political Science and later a PhD in Sociology. She taught a number of college and graduate school courses in Sociology and Multicultural Education from 1990 to 2010 as adjunct faculty at Maryville University (Missouri) and the University of Houston – Clear Lake (Texas). Leslie also worked as a grant writer with The Arts Alliance Center at Clear Lake from 2007-2010. She has created quilts and fiber art since 1986.