Artist Statements
The Past In Between the Present
04.11.2024
The Past (2019-2020) references family photographs from my and my mother’s childhood, highlighting the parallels between two generations. Brightly colored and energetic brushwork is used to help portray the innocence of the time, while the transparency of the oil paint to the underpainting shows the fading of memory.
The In Between (2020-2022) represents the transition between two major life events: undergraduate graduation to marriage. Within that time, my paintings revolved around the feeling of isolation brought on by the Pandemic by cropping figures or obscuring faces from the viewer, while still depicting moments from childhood. This series also features a more muted color palette, washing away the innocence of The Past. With one outlying figure, attention is brought to their expression and where their gaze is met. This frozen moment in time forms a quiet, uncomfortable tension between the painted figure and viewer.
The Present (Ongoing) depicts a collection of paintings from critical, life-changing moments. These moments represent the transition between childhood and adulthood by depicting the recent past. Out of the three series, these paintings have the darkest aesthetic due to the reference of Polaroid photography. However, the dark background enhances the figures and their movements. This movement is meant to represent new-found joy, but also creates a more realistic vision of life.
Portrait Series
04.20.2024
The people that surround us play an inevitable role in the way our lives are shaped, including the people that may appear as strangers. I focus on those quiet, uncomfortable moments where the viewer’s eyes meet the eyes of the canvas. In those moments, it appears the canvas is about to speak, but the viewer is left with only silence and a subtle stare. These stares contain a slight hint of recognition, but the discomforting feeling of not being able to place a face of where it has been seen before. The repetition of the same figure in multiple portraits solidifies the feeling of déjà vu.
In this Portrait Series, I paint portraits derived from a collection of Polaroids. The compact size of the panel allows for the portraits to be displayed in close proximity to one another. This allows for the series to keep expanding, and creating a further uncomfortable tension of faces staring at the viewer. The use of Polaroids as a reference creates an intensely dark background that highlights the figures as if they are coming out of the shadows, while also reminiscent of the “one shot” moment frozen in time.
About the Artist
16th Annual National Juried Exhibition 2024, Juried by Colleen Gutwein O'Neal, Goggleworks, Reading, PA
Leah Slemmer is a working artist located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her work explores memory and the relationship between figures through the use of color and distortion. In May of 2020, Leah received her BFA in painting and minor in art history from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Leah is currently a member of the Millersburg Area Art Association. Her work has most recently been included in juried exhibition at Goggleworks in Reading, PA and various locations in Lancaster, PA.
