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ARTIST STATEMENT
I work in a variety of mediums - painting and photography mostly, but also pottery, weaving, and woodworking. As with most artists, multi-tasking is a way of life and having an active observant mind is the key to creation. I live for solutions to problems as creating art is the ultimate puzzle. No matter which material is chosen, the goal is to engage the viewer in a journey. My creative process is the same whether I am painting or creating a multilayered photograph, glazing a tile or woodworking. The works are allegories that are narrative and symbolic. Frequently, I reference the environment, time, and regeneration. Time is an integral element; from that 'moment in time', to the slow passage of time reflected by natural elements and the changing environment. Water imagery is a symbol of change, cleansing, and renewal. Being that I grew up in an area under sea level, New Orleans, and water was only held back by levees, it is only fitting that I refer back to water often. Other images that are in the works are birds (messengers), nests (home), branches (transformation), feathers (virtues), boats (journeys), cloaks and bubbles (shields from harm), flowers (purity), and floating figures (observers). What interests me is the interactions of humans with the natural world. How have humans changed the environment? How do we view ourselves through historica objects/structures and how those impact on our environment? How have political actions affected our planet and our lives? How has politics caused misinformation, bigotry, hatred, and destruction? There are some artists who have inspired my work whether consciously or unconsciously; Giotto, Hieronymus Bosch, Renee Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Giorgio de Chirico, Edward Hopper, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, George Tooker, Robert Shwartz, and Faith Ringgold, A key element in all of these artists' works is imagery and allegory. Since I taught art history for most of my career, I tend to appreciate all visual art whether realistic, expressionistic, or abstract. A time lapse of some of the iterations of "Uneven Ground". My work is created from layers of photographs I have taken. The process generally takes weeks and usually has 24 - 30 image and color layers.
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BIOGRAPHY Leslie Elliottsmith
I was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but at 2 years old my family moved to New Orleans, first living on Canal Street and then moving to the new suburb of River Ridge. At that time, River Ridge (not yet incorporated) was still fairly rural and had wooded areas in which to have many adventures. The Mississippi river was at the end of the street with miles of levee. Days were spent outdoors investigating, building forts, playing sandlot baseball, and being dragged behind a bicycle with those skates that attached to your shoes. There were very few boundaries on what a child could do in the 60's and that just meant our minds had to devise the activities. I spent many days contemplating the world sitting under an oak tree with my dog in one of those wooded lots. It gave me peace and is still why I love being in nature and have created an acre and a half of gardens on my property. Looking out my windows looks upon a world of plants, animals, and insects.
My family took long car vacations each summer crisscrossing the United States. As we drove, I was fascinated when we would come upon an abandoned home isolated in what seemed to be the middle of no-where. When I first saw Edward Hopper's painting "House by the Railroad", it seemed so familiar. I had seen similar buildings on those long car vacations. It sparked a sense of restoration in my soul, which for an artist means nothing is ever considered trash, it can always be re-purposed. Most artists are collectors and I am no exception. My studio is full of bits of things found unexpectedly. I always wanted to be an artist from a very young age, driving my mother crazy making messes on the table as I created things with what was available. No one in the family was artistic in any way. At age 12, my parents gave me a set of oil paints, and offered art lessons, of which I attended one and realized that I did not want to just copy other people’s work. So instead, I opted to draw and paint from real life and from the exotic locations shown in National Geographic magazine. I attended Riverdale High school which was an all-girls public school at the time. There were four art instructors at the school, although only one of them was an artist of any merit. In 1973, I moved to Baton Rouge to attend LSU, majoring in painting at first and then switching to art education to ensure an income. I received my B.S. in art education in 1977 and a Masters of Fine Arts in printmaking with a minor in painting in 1979. My goal while in school was to take every art class offered. I did a pretty good job of doing that, graduating with 30 extra hours in art. I subsequently taught as an Assistant Professor at UNO and LSU and in 1983 moved to Alexandria to work as the education curator at the Alexandria Museum of Art until mid-1986 when the budget was cut. From mid-1986 to July 1990, I worked as an art consultant to several arts councils and as an artist-in-residence in parishes across Louisiana. Starting in August of 1990, I started a new adventure, teaching fine art survey, dual enrollment art survey, and AP art history online in a new distance education program called Telelearning which was designed by Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. This program eventually morphed into Louisiana Virtual School and was jointly managed by the Louisiana Department of Education and LSMSA. The program taught free courses to 5000 high school students across the state. From 2013 -2015, I was the director of online learning for the LSMSA Virtual School. I retired in July of 2015. During my years of teaching online, I also taught as an adjunct professor at various times for Louisiana College, LSU-Alexandria, NSU, and ULM. In 1995, I received the Louisiana State Visual Artists Fellowship for painting and later a State artist mini-grant for my professional development in 1998. In 2025, I received a CERF grant from the Baton Rouge Arts Council. Over the years, I have exhibited work in 265 exhibitions nationally and created public murals for the Baton Rouge Zoo, City of Alexandria (city hall and the old water building), LSU, LSUA, Calvary Baptist Church, Town Talk Newspaper Building (destroyed 2016), and Shreveport Arts council (destroyed 2005). My works are in the public art collections of LSU Medical Center- New Orleans, J. W. Marriott Hotel-New Orleans, LSU- Baton Rouge, LSUA - Alexandria, Louisiana College - Pineville, the City of New Orleans, Alexandria Museum of Art, Masur Museum of Art: Monroe,LA, Beaumont Art League - Texas, Nicolet College - Wisconsin, University of Southern Mississippi, and New Orleans Southern Baptist Hospital (now Ochsner Baptist Hospital). I am represented by LeMieux Galleries, 332 Julia Street, New Orleans and Baton Rouge Gallery, 1515 Dalrymple Dr., Baton Rouge. My work can be purchased through this website and through LeMieux Galleries in New Orleans and Baton Rouge Gallery. |
