LESSONS LEARNED, 12×17″, oil on canvas. Private Collection (click to enlarge).
Artist of the Week: Leslie Waxwing
Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. -Pablo Picasso
Leslie Waxwing has been a long time painter of highways, rivers and pathways. Her work signifies inner growth, movement, and all the directions one can travel in the course of a lifetime. Above all, Leslie’s imagery is a reflection of her own personal history. She uses her work as a way of keeping a visual diary, which helps her to navigate her own path in life. The process of painting allows Leslie to sort out her own experiences and emotions while focusing on her desire for continual growth and progress. Like many artists and visual thinkers, Leslie finds that she can better express certain moments and feelings in a visual way. Leslie describes her life and own experiences as her “art arsenal”.
“The process I use to create visual imagery focuses on my own personal history as subject matter. My life is my “art arsenal”. This sounds like an obvious strategy but it’s taken a while for me to fully understand why I use it. The “why” is always very important to me. I strive for meaning in my work. Without being too literal, I will reveal, it has something to do with being visible and holding emotion – memory within a time and space. The imagery I create is usually a deep landscape of a place I call home. Recording my experiences and being fully connected to my flow is vital for me. I always think of any creative endeavor as life support for the active participants and passive viewers. For me, the process of creating is absolutely thrilling”.
Cool Yellow One, 24×50″, oil on canvas (click to enlarge).
Leslie’s highways lend the viewer a profound sense of freedom, movement, advancement, and also a bit of nostalgia. Sometimes Leslie chooses to paint a border around her paintings. Occasionally, she will add a few tiny images around these borders; little snap shots of her inner and outer travels, like postcards or other souvenirs that seem to be collected along the way.
In the above “LESSONS LEARNED”, only the bottom portion of the border is filled in, leaving plenty of space for more new memories to be had. Perhaps the existing images reflect some lessons to keep while moving ahead.
Leslie’s work also reminds us that no matter where we travel to, even when not moving, we are always in transit. There is always more progress to be made. As we evolve, part of that process is learning to embrace even those moments when we aren’t quite sure of where we want to be, including those times when we have no idea where we are going. It’s easy to get antsy and cranky while trying to navigate somewhere but it is so much easier to relax and check out the scenery. Perhaps Leslie’s work is all about learning to enjoy the ride.
https://www.instagram.com/lesliewaxwing/
https://twitter.com/LeslieWaxwing