Surface Tension: the Artwork of Susan Leskin
I’ve been creating little worlds since I was very young. I think it was an attempt to produce a sense of safety and control. Twigs and pebbles, and crevices in the sidewalk, were formed into tiny universes where I could hide from a difficult childhood and manipulate the littlest of beings into a configuration I could live inside of. Even scraps of things under tables or on couches could not escape my imbuing them with identity and my need to re-form and arrange them to my liking. Sculpture? Maybe. Magical thinking? Most definitely. But invariably a place of calm and belonging.
And now I create my worlds on wood panels with acrylic, paper, ink, crayon, pencil, and the occasional found object. They are no longer made for safety or control, but to explore my inner universe: to discover my relationships with others and with other forms of life. Themes of connectivity and disjunction run through all of them.
Shapes are ambiguous, suggesting but never dictating. Rogue elements escape the usual grid of my work to slide or climb. Silhouettes are on the verge of recognition, but are rarely fully actualized. Lines shift and collide. Colors pierce my heart.
“My only defense against fate is color.”
—Larry Poons
“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up.”
—Picasso
“When you begin a picture you often make some pretty discoveries. You must be on guard against these. Destroy the thing, do it over several times. In each destroying of a beautiful discovery, the artist does not really suppress it, but rather condenses it, makes it more substantial. What comes out in the end is the result of discarded finds. Otherwise you become your own connoisseur.”
—Picasso
“My work frequently explores connectivity and disjunction. I enjoy creating images that are ambiguous and may be just on the edge of recognition. There is often a focus — explicit or implied — on the relationship between humans and nature.”
—Susan Leskin
“I’ve made pictures that are failures but I think I’ve rarely made any that are lies”
—Robert Motherwell
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