Leslie Goldman

About the Artist

"A sense of wonder" speaks to how Leslie Goldman creates: developing characters and landscapes drawn from memory and folklore, a childlike curiosity and the senses - crafting visceral works that give the viewer’s imagination room to explore. Leslie predominantly works with oil paint, graphite, pastel, ink and wax; building up, sanding down and scratching into layers to create a dreamlike atmosphere. Originally from the Philadelphia area, she has called New York state, Brooklyn, Austin, Takoma Park, Maryland, and Melbourne Australia home. Leslie holds a BFA from Alfred University where she studied art history alongside her intensive painting, sculpture, and photography coursework. When Leslie is not painting in her Fishtown studio, she works at the University of Pennsylvania in the library conservation department. She's worked as a conservation specialist for more than a decade, aiding in the preservation and conservation of historic documents and works on paper throughout museums and institutions in the Washington, DC area. 

Artist's Statement

My characters are awkward. I start with totems, animal archetypes that are easily recognizable and that tie into memories of folktales and mythology. They’re familiar. But in the same way our perception of fairytales change as we get older, my characters change the more time one spends with them. They aren’t happy, angry, bold or heroic; in short, they are not like the archetypes we grew up with, they’re more like us. Caught between multiple emotions or states, in some cases controlled by forces beyond them. Weather unconsciously or not, I find my creatures emerge wrestling with the same conflicts of emotion, sense of purpose, place in the world that we all do. Someone else pulls their strings and they find themselves waiting at a bus stop no longer remembering why. I try to bring the viewer to a place where the fantastic meets the uncomfortably familiar and begs multiple looks to fully understand what’s beneath.