ARTIST STATEMENT
Storytelling is at the core of my work, most of which revolves around childhood memories and dreams. “The Writing’s on the Wall” was painted in my parent’s basement when my studio was closed during the beginning of the pandemic. It depicts a wall on which muralists portray close family members present and absent. “Training Wheels” revisits memories from the past and games that my sisters and I shared when we were young. Much of my work is a tribute the memory of my youngest sister, a poet and artist, who continues to inhabit my thoughts and my visual narratives.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I received my Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where I lived and worked for eight years. My teaching experience includes The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, the School of Visual Arts in New York, and The Evanston Art Center. I won a Max Beckmann Memorial Scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum where I studied with Reuben Tam and a scholarship to the Provincetown Art Workshop in Massachusetts. I currently teach small classes at my studio at the Noyes Cultural Art Center.
Published review: New City, October 2, 2020 by Lori Waxman. Latest juried group exhibition at The Beverly Art Center, March 2022.
Awards: 2012 Best in Show/First Place Women’s Caucus for Art, San Diego, CA; 2008 Purchase Award, Galesburg Civic Art Center, IL.; 2007 Illinois National Museum of Women in the Arts Grant.
© Leslie A. Hirshfield