Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Pierce.
Hi Leslie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Around the age of 7, I began learning to draw by copying two Newspaper comics, “Peanuts” and “Doonesbury.” As I grew older, Doonesbury, along with other forms of art, interested me as a form of visual communication that reflected equal opportunity politics and current events, while softening struggles with irony and humour. I believe that as an artist, it is part of my full-time job to reflect the times in which we live.
I depict slice-of-life scenes and portraits that can be read with multiple, layered meanings or just enjoyed as an interesting piece of art. I enjoy having concepts and interpretations overlap. My unique style emerged while printing reference images, as my printer ran out of ink.
While living in Austin, Texas, I organized and curated group art exhibits, taught Painting and Drawing for the Austin Museum of Art’s Art School, and founded and hosted a popular all-male model Life Drawing and Painting group for the Austin Visual Arts Association. I am honored to have one of my pieces in the permanent collection of The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and have been awarded multiple Special Projects grants in Austin and San Diego to expand my work.
I opened my studio in San Diego, “Artist Leslie Pierce- And Something Different Studio Gallery “, 7 years ago, where I sell paintings and offer adult painting and drawing classes.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The same as all creatives: space, money, and connecting with more collectors.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am most proud of making unique art. My unique style sets me apart and places me with those who pioneered new ideas about art before me.
I am a multidisciplinary contemporary artist, known for art that focuses on people in environments juxtaposed with coding systems, technology, and fragmentation. My a-ha moment came while printing a reference image as my printer was running out of ink. I began painting vertical lines in oil paint to generate value, form, space, time, and place. I also work in Video Art as an extension of the paintings. These concepts are contrasted in luscious palettes of ice cream colors that flourish in slice-of-life contemporary scenes.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
ARTIST STATEMENT LESLIE PIERCE
I am an artist motivated by contemporary culture and the rapid pace at which we continually absorb information and images. My art focuses on how visual information hits our retinas and how images are reduced, rearranged, and interpreted by thought. If something is left out of a story or an image, our brains automatically fill in the rest. This filling-in-the-gaps response is an interesting area to think about visually, as in how each person perceives images differently, so too is the way we fill in the gaps and negative spaces.
I arrived at the series after a few years of experimenting with figurative work and playing with contrasts of flat and modeled areas. Then one day, my printer ran out of ink and left skipping color bands across the page. The image presented was both abstract and figurative and reflected life in our world right now: fast-paced, technology-driven, fragmented, mysterious, and captivating.
From there, I began distilling photo references- most of which I have taken, into vertical lines of paint. Form and value seem to be ironed out, while simultaneously standing up in space. Beneath the surface appeal, I am examining ideas on social fragmentation and coding systems. These concepts are contrasted in luscious palettes of ice cream colors that flourish in slice-of-life contemporary scenes. See Exhibition history and Bibliography here. CV
Contact Info:
- Website: https://artistlesliepiercestudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artistlesliepierce/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtistLesliePierce/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artistlesliepierce/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Artist-Leslie-Pierce
