Leslie Kerby
Brooklyn, NY
Website
www.lesliekerby.com
Social Media
@lesliekerby
facebook
How would you describe your work?
My art focuses on issues related to how we lead our lives, personally as individuals, and to how our personal lives are invariably connected to, and changedby, broader networks and communitieswithinwhichweliveandinteract.Iexaminethesesystemsandnetworks,employingresearch,tounderstand,discoverandanticipatepossiblesignificantmomentsofchange.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by art and by other artists working in a variety of media, a good novel or work of non-fiction, a well told story in an intriguing movie, satire, new blooms inspiring, meeting new people, the energetic IRL conversations that I have with my neighbors, my family.
Can you speak about your process?Myprocessbeginswithreading,researchandobservationandasaresultofthatknowledge,Iaminspiredtocreateworkthatilluminatesasubject,asksquestions,andencouragesconversationsaroundtopicsincluding:community,identity,financialinequality,immigration,realandimaginedborders,globalshipping,socialmedia,medicalindustryandfunerarymemorialization.EachtimeIbeginaproject,Istartwithdrawing/sketching,thinkingabouthowIwanttopresentmyideaseitherthroughpainting,printmaking,collage,sculpture,installationorvideo,etc.andinsomecases,considerotherartistswithwhomImightwanttocollaborate.CurrentlyIampaintingandsometimescollagingonvellumwithsubjectssourcedfromconversationswithfriendsandcolleaguesfromallovertheworld,called“HappyPlace”thatIbeganduringthepandemic,also,Iamworkingonamonoprintserieswithdrawingadditionsaboutthereimaginingofpublicspaceandsocialinteractions,andfinishinganillustratedbook(acollaborationwithagroupofwriters)aboutaneclecticcommunityfacingmajorcultural,environmentalandarchitecturalchangestoGovernor’sIslandinNewYork.
How did you become interested in art?
My first exposure to fine art was in an art history course in college. It wasn’t until many years later that I developed a studio practice. Until that time, I worked as a social worker, in advertising as a focus group moderator, incorporate communications (hiring design firms and artists), at regional museums the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell and the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ and as an independent art consultant, developing and representing commercial artists’ and design studio’s projects. The first art that I made was a series of small, abstract paper collages with gouache. I printed the images on to greeting cards and had a business for a few years selling to museum and theater shops across the country. After that, with an introduction to printmaking, I started to make larger narrative images with figures that attracted interest from a local art gallery. After several exhibitions at the gallery, I began to think of myself as an artist.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books, or quotes?
Wow, difficult questions to answer because I read widely and look at, and appreciate, so many artworks, books and movies. I have many, many favorites. Here are just a few.
Books: Colorless TsukuruTazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Paddy Clarke hahaha, The Great Successor, The Story of My Teeth, George F.Kennan An American Life, Message from the Library No.3, Alberto Giacometti, A Little Life, The Orphan Master’s Son, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Recent Movies: Parasite, The Florida Project, Tangerine, Talk to Her, All About My Mother, Bad Education, Anora, TheTrader, Perfect Days, Y Tu Mamá También
Artists: Giacometti, Ben Shahn, Paul Klee, MaxBeckman, William Kentridge, Kathy Bradford, NickPark, David Hockney, Kerry James Marshall, Jane Walt, Salman Toor, Hope Gangloff, Jennifer Packer, Amy Sherald,Beverly Buchanan, Alice Neal
