ABOUT THE ART

For me, art begins when I am not working. With my lifelong habit of looking closely at everything, I contemplate color, shape, texture, space, and their relationships as they appear in daily life. I look at art, clouds, faces, even such objects as discarded scraps of metal and wood (which I collect for possible use). In some mysterious way, thoughts and observations recede, percolate and, in time, bring forth a color, texture or other element which is the genesis of an artwork. The first element then suggests a second and a third, and so goes the making of art. I make my art through a combination of experience, knowledge and thought, but something else happens at a deeper level, not logically plotted. Call it magic.

Many of my paintings have assemblages of metal or metal and wood attached to the canvas. Some include collage. Shape, line, color, texture and space interact on canvas, and sometimes beyond its borders. Using these rough materials on a ground of translucent depth (acrylic paint, pastels and other traditional media applied layer upon layer), I find beauty and formal elegance in unlikely combinations. Equally important are the textures, energy and space which are sensed rather than seen. Mystery, spirit, the layered nature of existence. Inspired by nature, art, discarded objects, and the inner journey, my artworks transform disparate elements and integrate them into a new universe.

—Leslie Shaw Zadoian