Leslie Zadoian |
STATEMENT
When I search New York streets or country roads for rusted metal or discarded wood, I remind myself that using trash to make art is being a magician. My abstract assemblage paintings, whether they end up as 5 x 7 or 30 x 40 inch pieces, begin with the collections made during these treasure hunts. By combining found materials with traditional art media I explore space, the literal expanse of (and extending beyond) the canvas, as well as the implicit textures and space behind what we see--call it mystery or spirit or the unknown realms within humanity: it has no name.
I begin a piece by looking at the one or more found articles I plan to use. Often they have a geometric shape or the mutation of one; rusted auto parts or tools and dismantled fruit crates have figured in some recent works. I make a small sketch as a starting point, but the final work rarely ends up as first envisioned. Mostly I begin with stretched, gessoed canvas and put down between five and ten layers of color, with one predominating and several other colors hinted at, blended in, somehow there and not there. I use thin layers of acrylic paint, as well as small amounts of oil pastel and pencil, which provide a ground suggesting translucency and depth. I sometimes attach found or handmade paper to the ground. Then I attach the solid components--the wood, metal, plastic, for example--which may involve slitting the canvas and/or adding additional (unseen) support behind the canvas. When I finish, these disparate elements have been transformed and integrated into a new universe where the viewer and I can sense the unseen. My art turns life inside out, with footing in the here and now.
BIOGRAPHY
A New Yorker for most of my life, I was educated at Queens College, City University of New York and the Art Students League of New York. Recent shows include 23rd International Juried Show, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Rolling River Café/Gallery, Parksville, NY, Bronxville Library, Bronxville, NY; Broome St. Gallery, NY, Synagogue for the Arts, NY.
I am a member of the American Society of Contemporary Artists, the Art Students League of New York, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance and Liberty Museum and Arts Center and Women in the Arts.
When I search New York streets or country roads for rusted metal or discarded wood, I remind myself that using trash to make art is being a magician. My abstract assemblage paintings, whether they end up as 5 x 7 or 30 x 40 inch pieces, begin with the collections made during these treasure hunts. By combining found materials with traditional art media I explore space, the literal expanse of (and extending beyond) the canvas, as well as the implicit textures and space behind what we see--call it mystery or spirit or the unknown realms within humanity: it has no name.
I begin a piece by looking at the one or more found articles I plan to use. Often they have a geometric shape or the mutation of one; rusted auto parts or tools and dismantled fruit crates have figured in some recent works. I make a small sketch as a starting point, but the final work rarely ends up as first envisioned. Mostly I begin with stretched, gessoed canvas and put down between five and ten layers of color, with one predominating and several other colors hinted at, blended in, somehow there and not there. I use thin layers of acrylic paint, as well as small amounts of oil pastel and pencil, which provide a ground suggesting translucency and depth. I sometimes attach found or handmade paper to the ground. Then I attach the solid components--the wood, metal, plastic, for example--which may involve slitting the canvas and/or adding additional (unseen) support behind the canvas. When I finish, these disparate elements have been transformed and integrated into a new universe where the viewer and I can sense the unseen. My art turns life inside out, with footing in the here and now.
BIOGRAPHY
A New Yorker for most of my life, I was educated at Queens College, City University of New York and the Art Students League of New York. Recent shows include 23rd International Juried Show, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Rolling River Café/Gallery, Parksville, NY, Bronxville Library, Bronxville, NY; Broome St. Gallery, NY, Synagogue for the Arts, NY.
I am a member of the American Society of Contemporary Artists, the Art Students League of New York, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance and Liberty Museum and Arts Center and Women in the Arts.