Leslie Ford
Leslie Ford is an abstract painter whose practice embraces printmaking and photography. She holds a BFA in Design from Carnegie-Mellon University and completed a summer residency in Painting and Mixed Media at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Based in New York, Leslie is an Art File Member of the Painting Center of New York City, a Rose Member of New York Artists Equity Association of New York City and an Artist Associate Member of the Ink Shop, Ithaca, NY.
“My painting practice is about layers of understanding and vision. I have a strong interest in mirage as an experience. Sensory distortions, perceptions and deceptions are present in all my work. What we see or think we see may or may not be physically present but could still be an experience.”
Make Some Friends and Cosmic Twins are a series of digital pigment prints created by using alternative photography lenses on digital camera bodies. My zone plate lens is of particular interest since it creates a flare around the object being photographed. This work grew out of an idea to use Victorian flatware to make stick figures. I construct the figures using found flatware from various sources. These portraits of small figures made of flatware components from another era glow due to refracted light from thousands of little scratches in the metal. They are somewhat otherworldly due to halos created by the zone plate lens. My new friends are engaging in their robotic form and strangely comforting to construct. This work speaks to a world where we are all becoming more familiar with small robots and less human contact.
make some friends 21
2021
zone plate digital photograph
10 x 8 inches
make some friends 13
2021
zone plate digital photograph
10 x 8 inches
make some friends 5
2021
zone plate digital photograph
10 x 8 inches
cosmic twins 3294-95
2021
zone plate digital photograph
20 x 20 inches
cosmic twins 3283-84
2021
zone plate digital photograph
20 x 20 inches
Ball of Confusion is a series of oil pigment stick paintings on panel that is constructed of many layers of transparent and opaque paint as a circle contained within the square panel. When we see a circle inside a square it has many meanings as a metaphor. Traditionally the circle represents infinity and unity while the square is a symbol of the material or physical world which has many things that come in series of four such as earth, air, fire, and water. Attempting to square a circle in math can mean to attempt a seemingly impossible task such as world peace as a metaphor. Spiritually to square a circle can mean to see in all directions and to be completely free metaphorically. An ocean world is a type of terrestrial planet that includes water as mist, subsurface ocean, or fluid on its surface. Our planet Earth is an ocean world with the ability to originate and host many forms of life. Eternity and time are metaphors of both a physical and spiritual world explored in Ball of Confusion.
Exhibition Catalogue:
Spring 2023
2022, Oil pigment stick on panel
12 x 12 inches
2022, Oil pigment stick on panel
12 x 12 inches
2022, Oil pigment stick on panel
12 x 12 inches
2022, Oil pigment stick on panel
12 x 12 inches
2022, Oil pigment stick on panel
12 x 12 inches
Medium: Acrylic on panel
Dimensions: 12 x 12 inches
Exhibition Catalogue:
November 2021