Lesley Eaton: Shaping Maternal Lineage: A Collection of Painted Paper Collage
November 5-23, 2021
Lesley Eaton: Shaping Maternal Lineage: A Collection of Painted Paper Collage
Opening reception: Friday, November 5, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 9 AM – 5 PM and Saturday 10 AM – 1 PM. Closed Wednesday-Saturday, November 24-27.
Artist Statement
Shaping Maternal Lineage showcases my newest painted paper collage work. Having worked as a collage artist for years, this collection of cut paper work reveals a significant shift in my process and the resulting artwork. From my initial thoughts conceptualizing this show, I let the imagery reveal itself to me, instead of seeking out a theme or subject matter to focus on. Listening to that imagery, and therefore letting my intuition guide me, I ended up surrounded by a trove of lush velvety green, bright florals, and obscure kitchen tools. At first it seemed the connecting thread of this imagery was my maternal grandmother’s kitchen, but a deeper examination of these images that kept appearing revealed a deeper connection with my own mother’s kitchen, and a realization of the beauty and love passed down through simple, often uncelebrated, habits: trimming stems at the sink for the large vase filled perennially with cut flowers, lining the window sills with African violets, and meticulously chopping, sifting, grating, stirring, and perfecting each savory and sweet offering of nourishment.
Just as I let my intuition guide me to reveal this imagery celebrating my maternal genes, I also let my intuition guide my process creating each piece more than I have in the past. Instead of planning out and drawing each piece, then cutting shapes out with a knife, I worked almost exclusively with scissors to create these pieces, cutting shapes and letting them take on more organic forms, relating more than ever with Henri Matisse’s notion of “drawing with scissors.” The resulting images feel vibrant and alive, full of a beauty and simplicity through which I hope to honor and gratefully celebrate the gifts I’ve inherited: trimming stems, potting plants, meticulously chopping, stirring, and delighting the senses with offerings from my own kitchen.
Artist Bio
After receiving degrees in English Literature and Art History, a love of storytelling and visual imagery led Lesley to pursue an MFA in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design. After a brief detour through Georgia, Lesley returned to Tennessee and has called Knoxville home for the past fourteen years. Lesley has worked as an illustrator and collage artist and has recently begun exploring paint as a more expressive medium. However, she is always called back to painting and cutting up papers and considers collage a second language. She is drawn to the intuitiveness of moving cutout shapes around a canvas and loves the juxtaposition of expressively painted paper with sharp crisp edges of cut paper. Lesley and her husband have taken on their largest creative endeavor to date and are finishing up restoring a 178-year-old home in East TN while raising their four children, all of whom have been proficient with scissors from a young age. When she’s not creating, playing, or driving carpool, she likes to dream about their one-day garden and get her feet in a cold mountain stream as often as possible.
Instagram: @lesleyeatonart
Lesley Eaton’s collage work is featured as part of the Kolaj LIVE Knoxville, November 5-7, based at the Knoxville Museum of Art. This weekend-long event brings together artists, curators, and writers for a weekend of collage making, slideshows, exhibition visits, and storytelling that deepens our understanding of collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century movement. http://www.kolajinstitute.org/kolaj-live-knoxville.html