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grew-up in a family of 4 kids
in Denver, Colorado. Our mom,
Alicia, was a self-taught
artist who impressed us and
our friends with her biceps
that she developed carving
marble in our backyard. I
spent hours gazing at her
paintings, our navajo rug,
the architecture of our house
as seen from a horizontal
position, the colorado skies.
This was my early training
as a visual artist.
As a teenager I taught
myself how to make batiks,
embroider and weave. It
wasn’t until I was 18 ,though,
that I began to imagine
myself as an artist. In
1974 I went to the Santa
Fe Contemporary Arts Workshop
and made my first paintings.
Discovering this gave me
both pleasure and frustration.
Soon thereafter I found
myself in NYC attending
the School of Visual Arts.
After graduating with a
B.F.A. in 1979, I worked
as artist assistant for
Julien Schnabel and Dan
Christensen. In 1980 I seized
the moment and went to Europe.
I set out to Italy to learn
Fresco techniques and made
a detour to Paris, where
I ended up living for some
years. In Paris I discovered
a night work rhythm and
solitude that resulted in
a large body of paintings
and some exhibits, including
The Salon de Montrouge.
In 1982 I met Pierre Goirand
who was at the time working
for RCA creating a label
for young french rock musicians.
We were married in Provence
and returned to NYC for
6 years. There I had a two
one-person shows and participated
in several group exhibits.
We returned again to Paris
in 1990. In 1992 our daughter
Naomi was born. Such a monumental
change made it neither possible
nor desirable to continue
my work as before her birth.
I wanted to paint her a
book that told our/her-story.
This was done with collages
and paintings. For our new
years card I made a photo-collage
with a photo of Naomi .All
our friends loved it and
I’ve done this annually
ever since, creating a portrait-series
of her growing up. I’ve
received several commissions
to make cards with other
people’s children.
Eventually this painting/photo
collage process led to my
first book project. Pierre
and I were studying non-violent
communication with Marshal
Rosenberg. This inspired
me to make a Book of Feelings.
I asked friends to send
photo’s of their children
where an authentic feeling
was expressed. My wall covered
with these precious images,
I chose photograph’s to
juxtapose into a poetic-expressive
painted background to represent
a variety of positive and
negative feelings. I met
Zoe Fachon, a published
French children’s
writer, who was enthusiastic
and wrote a french text
to accompany my images for
The Book of Feelings. After
that project I created Bug
Wishes,with Holt editor
Christy Ottaviano , and
I am currently incredibly
excited , working on a book
project with author Sandra
Cisneros, called The Crybaby.
To
contact Leslie, please click
here
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