News From the Studio

the power of one

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:42:00 +0000

As some of you know, my word for 2012 is PREPARATION. I stumbled on this awesome post from shutter sisters:

One Word from Christine Sneddon on Vimeo.

Handcrafted 2012 Exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Join me for the opening reception of the Handcrafted 2012 Exhibition at the Maria V. Howard Arts Center located at 270 Gay Street in Rocky Mount, NC 27804. The gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 1-5pm. The exhibit runs January 28 - May 20, 2012 with an artist reception and award ceremony on January 29 from 6pm-9pm.

My piece "Toward Wholeness" was selected to be a part of this year's show.

Juror Brent Skidmore is Director of Craft Studies and an Assistant Professor of Art at UNC-Asheville. His diverse career includes 21 years of instructing at universities and craft programs across the nation including Penland, Arrowmont, Anderson Ranch, and Peter’s Valley and 8 dedicated years as a studio artist.
Brent continues making sculptural furniture between administrative and volunteer commitments today. His works and techniques are published in “The Penland Book of Woodworking” (Lark Books), and he has exhibited extensively in the US, Finland, and Dubai including exhibits at the Smithsonian Craft Show and SOFA-Chicago.

Vigil

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:56:00 +0000

Keeping watch...

Today's Work

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:24:00 +0000

Distressing paper for a handmade book. This is part of a new installation I'm working on called Vigil. It will be completed at the beginning of next year. The concept for the piece revolves around the meditative and transformative value of prayer, journaling, and fasting over the course of time. I'm also making one small hand built bowl every morning. There will be 365 bowls and 365 journal entries in this installation.

Doing

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Distilled from a series of tape-recorded conversations with Ann Hamilton at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California, July 23 and 24, 1990:

HD: Where did you get your persistence, your tenacity? They seem in sync with your curiosity.

AH: I think it has something to do with my family, and being raised in the Midwest with a strong work ethic. But it too can get in the way and it has been a long slow process learning when not to be "doing." If you're too worried about these deadlines and you don't have enough time to ask "what if", you may lose the potential of "what if", which is where the ideas come. I have to have a lot of blank time to incubate. The repetitive processes in my installations are a "doing" way to create that blank space. The problem this year is that I haven't had enough of that. Increasingly I've felt like I've been having to make decisions all the time, rather than having that blank space to just do nothing. So when I get it, it's in taking walks, and not so much in the work, as it was before. This will change the work.

Ready for Prime Time

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:42:00 +0000

My time lapse video "Action : Interaction" is included in the Preview Screening Party: Ready for Prime Time Thursday JANUARY 26 7pm - 9pm at CityMac, 755 Biltmore Avenue, Biltmore Village.

The Asheville Art Museum is pleased to present Ready for Prime Time, a preview party celebrating Prime Time: New Media Juried Exhibition, the inaugural exhibition of the New Media Gallery scheduled to open in the Museum's newly-expanded East Wing in March 2012. Ready for Prime Time will take place at Asheville CityMac, located at 755 Biltmore Avenue in Biltmore Village, on Thursday, January 26 at 7:00 p.m. (audiences of all ages are welcome). A $5 donation at the door is suggested to support ongoing exhibitions and educational programming at the Museum.

In the fall of 2011, the Museum invited submissions from North Carolina artists working with screen-based, new media art work, such as video art, experimental animation and time-based media, to be featured in the inaugural exhibition of the New Media Gallery. One work by each submitting artist will be screened during Ready for Prime Time.

The New Media Gallery will be the first of its kind in WNC, offering innovative artists including those featured in Prime Time: New Media Juried Exhibition the opportunity to share their work with the community while developing new audiences and gaining recognition for their contribution to the modern art scene. The Museum eagerly anticipates the artistic developments made possible through the use of this exciting new gallery space.

Ready for Prime Time is hosted by CityMac, with additional support from Appalachian Vintner, the City of Asheville's Cultural Arts Division, the North Carolina Arts Council and the Rotary Club of Asheville. The Museum is also grateful to WNC magazine for their support as the media sponsor of this exciting event that celebrates the innovative creativity of our region and state.

Prime Time: New Media Juried Exhibition and related programs are also sponsored by RTCAR, Cherokee Preservation Foundation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and North Carolina State University, with additional exhibition support from Blue Ridge National Heritage Area.

My Collection

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:13:00 +0000

Bouquet

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:01:00 +0000

River

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:29:00 +0000

I want to wake up and know where I'm going
I want to go where the rivers are overflowing and
I'll be ready

I'm ready to let the rivers wash over me

If the waters can redeem me
I'm ready

I'm ready to let the rivers wash over me

I want to wake up
I want to know where I'm going
I want to go where the rivers are over-flowing

I'm ready to let the rivers wash over me
I'm ready ...

- Tracy Chapman

Cells- Progress pics

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:59:00 +0000

My newest installation called Cells is underway. I've started adding gut to the wire.

New Gut Sculptures

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:37:00 +0000

Materials are wire and hog casings. Sizes are 24", 21", and 19".

Schwa 2012 - Opening

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:52:00 +0000

My mixed media piece "Flock 2" is in the Schwa Show, a National Juried Art Exhibition at the Pitt County Arts Council at Emerge in Greenville, North Carolina. Please join me at the reception tonight, January 6.

January 6 – January 28: The Schwa Show: National Juried Art Exhibition

New piece under way...

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:24:00 +0000

My Word for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:12:00 +0000

prep·a·ra·tion, noun \ˌpre-pə-ˈrā-shən\

1: the action or process of making something ready for use or service or of getting ready for some occasion, test, or duty

2: a state of being prepared

3: a preparatory act or measure

The last three years have been very hectic for me. I've been on the go nonstop - driving back and forth between Greenville and Wilmington while working on a second masters degree. As of this month, I completed my goal and graduated with an MFA. During this journey through school, I have also had several "big" life changes. We moved into our wonderful, river front home in Leland; my sister and niece moved in with us; we bought the Fayetteville Museum of Art to turn into a wedding venue; and I moved my studio from Acme to my home. I feel like I have just been reacting to whatever new challenge came at me. I've been dealing with some things, putting others off, making to do lists, and neglecting dear friends. This year, my word is Preparation. I want to take some time to reboot. I want to get organized, to catch up on things, to revisit relationships, to romance my husband, to concentrate on one thing at a time, to get focused, to work on my body, soul, and spirit. I want to be prepared in every way I can for the next door that will open to me.

Lamentations 3:40
"Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD."

Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:26:00 +0000

To think about the space of someone speaking and someone listening / a situation of response . . .
I began to think about words . . .
What can words do?
How can words be acts of making? . . .

— Ann Hamilton

Christmas 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:45:00 +0000

Opening a 10 year old collectable Wonder Woman Barbie and giving to niece for Christmas...priceless.

Bubbles

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:33:00 +0000

Distressing some paper using ink infused bubble soap.

New Work

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:05:00 +0000

I started working on a new piece today. I'm drawing inspiration from bee cells. This will be an installation and will no doubt take awhile, so stay tuned...

Seedlings

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:45:00 +0000

Tea Party

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:27:00 +0000

The final in our ceramics class was a tea party. Very fun! We each made a tea set.

Reality Check

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Funny ha ha

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:49:00 +0000

Reception Photos at the GMA

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:57:00 +0000

Here's a few photos from Friday night's reception at the Greenville Museum of Art for the opening of Vignettes of a Family:

Me and mom

Me, Bob Ebendorf, and Christine Zoller

Me, Bob, and MJ Cunningham

Vignettes of a Family - Images and more

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:50:00 +0000

Vignettes of a Family explores memory, identity formation, and the transformative value of communication. Narrative therapy approaches such as letter writing, journaling, and story telling are combined with traditional studio art practices to create this large-scale, mixed media installation. Through my investigations, I have deduced that having a better understanding of oneself is the key to understanding others. Within this body of work viewers are invited to share in the stories of triumph and hardships experienced by my own Midwestern American family.

Vignettes of a Family, is about the ways in which individual and collective memory shapes identity. In an effort to narrow down such a broad subject, I started with my own family history in an attempt to address universal concepts in a personal context. The questions "Who am I" and "Who are we?" are central throughout our lives and have long been a topic discussed among psychologists, spiritualists, and therapists. My goal for this body of work was to deal with memory as a tool to observing and understanding the past. Exploring memory becomes instrumental in defining and re-inventing identity. Memory is a process of retelling and connecting fragmented and dissipated stories in an effort to identify commonalities within the framework of "family”.

Scroll down to read more...

PROCESS, MATERIALS, and COMPONENTS

Vignettes of a Family is a mixed media installation consisting of a series of ten digitally composed photographic images printed onto large-scale fabric panels. The panels are approximately 40 inches wide and vary in size from six to eight feet in length. Each panel is heavily hand embroidered and machine stitched to add an additional sense of color, depth, and dimension to the overall linear compositions. Each printed and stitched panel is combined with two hand-dyed panels of silk organza to create a triangular column of fabric that is suspended from the ceiling of the exhibition space. Within each of the triangular columns floats a fiber based sculptural element made up of several hollow, spherical forms that are grouped together in a linear format. The spheres are arranged by size from smallest to largest and smallest again, with the largest sphere resting approximately at the viewer’s eye level.

The Panels

The printed fabric panels were created using scanned photographs, letters, and other personal ephemera. Using Adobe Photoshop, I constructed digitally collaged images with multiple layers. During this process I sorted through a variety of images and selected those I felt best represented the essence of each person I wanted to represent. The hand embroidery was an important meditative process that forced me to sit and stitch for hundreds of hours. While my hands were busy, my mind was free to think about and digest the underlying reasons for the project, the people, and the stories that have played a part in constructing my memories, which have in turn shaped my identity. For me, the act of hand stitching is a very personal, sensory experience. Although laborious at times, there is a satisfaction derived from the rhythmic, ordered process, and body involvement. There is a meditative quality that occurs in working steadily with a single-minded intention that forces me to slow down and quiet myself long enough to think and be in the moment. The stitching also adds a tactile quality, and an added layer of depth and dimension to the piece. The free motion machine stitching was a way for me to work a little more freely and spontaneously as I responded intuitively to shapes and lines, creating visual paths and extensions within the compositions using thread.

The silk organza panels are transparent and ethereal allowing the viewer to see through into the heart/core of the Self. Through my research, I have come to understand that when you get to know people, you get to know them from other angles and perspectives. Aesthetically, the spherical, triangular, and rectangular shapes that coexist within each column offer a sense of balance and variety. In the exhibition space, the ten fabric columns are suspended from the ceiling in a manner that serves as a path for viewers to pass through.

Significance of the Spheres

The spherical forms represent the multifaceted and multidimensional nature of people. They also represent the cyclical nature of how memory shapes identity. The circular form is such a powerful symbol with philosophical and psychological theories that relate the Self in conjunction to everything else. In an excerpt from Being Spherical, authors Phil Lawson and Robert L. Lindstrom describe the sphere as myth and metaphor:

“…As a symbolic representation of three-dimensional space, the sphere encompasses all things knowable - the atom, the cell, the earth, the sky and the universe. The sphere is the great container of all that is available to our senses and our scientific sensors. In the world of time, the circle represents the beginning, the end and a return to the beginning. The sphere and the circle represent both the journey and the destination. What is it that makes the sphere so pervasive and so mighty? Why does it appear with such regularity and prominence in every culture, region, faith and epoch? Why does the sphere inhabit even our dreams? Because, when thinking about the sphere, or when using it to describe our experience, we are contemplating the totality of interconnection. In the sphere, we see everything in relationship to everything else. In the sphere we see the patterns of being” (Lawson and Lindstrom, 2004).

Making the spheres was a two-person job. My sister Leigh was my assistant. I set out to create something that would be ethereal and structurally sound. There was much trial and error before arriving at the final method employed in making the sculptural forms. Lengths of coarse yarn were coated in a mixture of water, white glue, and Plaverpol, a fabric stiffener. The soaked yarn was wrapped around rubber punch balls blown up to different sizes. When dry, the balls were popped and a hollow shell remained. The spheres were joined together and coated with a neutral colored spray paint to further seal and protect them. Over one hundred spheres were created for this installation.

Significance of the triangular form

In Vignettes of a Family, the triangular forms represent my personal philosophy from a Christian perspective regarding the three parts of man – the body, the soul, and the spirit. I believe that man was created as body and soul and is transformed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and therefore, is three parts.

Images by Justin Pearson Photography

Aesthetica Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Leslie Pearson) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:29:00 +0000

I am excited to share the news that my multimedia installation Incubation was selected to be included in Aesthetica Magazine's 2012 Creative Works Annual. Incubation was recently exhibited at the Burroughs Gallery at East Carolina University and is scheduled to be exhibited at the Black Door Gallery in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in 2012.

There were over 3,000 submissions and 75 artists were selected to be featured in the publication.

From Aesthetica Editor Cherie Federico: "I would like to offer you my heartfelt congratulations on being shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Works Art Award. The caliber of entries this year was exceptionally high, and so, I feel honored to have had the privilege to view this year's 3000 works. I am delighted that you've made the shortlist and we will be announcing the winner upon publication of the CWC Annual. Congratulations on your achievement."

From the Aesthetica blog:

The Aesthetica Creative Works Annual is a stimulating anthology of new works that explore contemporary artistic practice, bringing together 75 artists who represent contemporary visual culture across a range of media.

Artists from across the world are presented in this collection, and through this international representation it’s possible to see works that are being produced today in different contexts; yet several of these works, although diverse in medium, explore related ideas. Many of the overriding themes are centered on identity, location, economy, 21st century alienation, politics and globalization.

The works in this collection fuse the personal with the global and unite to communicate a wider message about the world in which we live.

The Annual can be purchased online at www.aestheticamagazine.com/shop.htm

Aesthetica engages with the arts both in the UK and internationally, combining dynamic content with compelling critical debate. Aesthetica is distributed in the UK in WH Smith, major galleries such as Tate Modern, ICA, and the Serpentine, as well as in 18 countries worldwide. Aesthetica is one of the leading publications for arts and culture and the editor of Aesthetica is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
For further information on Aesthetica Magazine please visit www.aestheticamagazine.com