May Featured Artist: Leslie Rock

For more infor­ma­tion vis­it: leslie​rock​.com

Artist Statement:

In 2005, with my chil­dren grow­ing old­er, I found myself with extra time, and so I embarked upon my third career. Com­ing from a back­ground in engi­neer­ing and moth­er­hood, art was a fresh and irre­sistible call­ing that I threw myself into whole­heart­ed­ly. I took my first paint­ing class, open to wher­ev­er it would take me. Before I knew it, my life was trans­formed. Since then I have been work­ing, play­ing, study­ing, exper­i­ment­ing and solid­i­fy­ing my iden­ti­ty as an artist. Oils are my first love, but I do dab­ble in mixed media and acrylics. I work pri­mar­i­ly on can­vas, though I have exper­i­ment­ed with wood and paper as well. I pre­fer medi­um and large sized sur­faces since they give me an oppor­tu­ni­ty to paint freely and loose­ly. Neal Don­ald Walsh’s quote, ​“Life begins at the end of your com­fort zone,” has inspired my artis­tic growth from the moment I heard it. With these words always in mind, I set goal after goal for myself. I am con­stant­ly evolv­ing as an artist, and these goals ensure that I nev­er stagnate. 

The fig­ure is my source of inspi­ra­tion; no mat­ter how much I devi­ate from the fig­ure I can­not help but return. Being con­nect­ed to my sub­ject in some way, whether by acquain­tance or mem­o­ry, is very impor­tant to me and brings vital­i­ty to my work. The emo­tion I feel when I am paint­ing is also crit­i­cal to the out­come. My works reflect my state of mind, good and bad and every­thing in between. My cur­rent method of paint appli­ca­tion has cre­at­ed rich pieces with many lay­ers, mak­ing each one a thrill to view. Each one of these pieces is unique and can­not be recre­at­ed, giv­en the loose­ness of my appli­ca­tion and the emo­tions that dri­ve it. I believe this is an inter­est­ing ​“turn in the road” for me, but, as always, I remind myself that I need to keep push­ing that com­fort zone, no mat­ter how big it grows or how much I grow to love it.