How long have you been creating? Probably since I was a kid. I used to write and illustrate what looked to me like a magazine and then give it to my mom. I was always making things and giving them to her. Gardening was also a passion when I was really little. I used to think of color combinations for my little plot in the backyard. One year I tried to create an all white garden. Gardening is an art form. But in terms of creating and selling art, I sold my first piece of art when I was pregnant with my first child. She's now 30 years old so that milestone helps me to remember how long I've been at this.
Is there anything else we should know about your art? I love the process of adding and subtracting from my art. Layering with different acrylic media, some collaging, masking, building up from the substrate, carving out. I have to admit I love it when people can't figure out how I created something. I used to have a studio in the Northrup King Building and I would often be asked, "how did you do that?" of which I would reply, "a lot of hard work." Sassy response but true. Hours and hours of experimenting and trying things and failing and succeeding.
Leslie Pilgrim is a Minnesota artist who makes work that is drenched in color, punctuated by texture, and inspired by nature. Her visual language is connected to the tide pools along the Oregon coast, Minnesota’s North Shore, a star-filled night sky, or flowers swaying in a summer breeze. We enjoyed learning more about the many talents of Leslie Pilgrim and think you will too!
Why did you decide to become an artist/who influenced you the most? I have a cousin who was living in Los Angeles in the 1990s who is an artist and I loved the work she created. She was creating work I'd never seen before here in Minnesota. This was 30+ years ago. I asked her if I could rep her work, and she was open to the idea even though I had no idea what I was doing. I knocked on so many doors. Such hard work. And, I really was not much of a salesperson. I sold a few pieces but after living with her wonderful artwork (I carried it around in a portfolio to show), I realized what I wanted to do was what she did even though I had no background in this. She very generously agreed to mentor me. She even got me connected with art reps in California who agreed to buy my art. The timing was fortuitous as this was the go-go 1990s when hotels and offices and homes were being built in the West like crazy. I benefited from a confluence of fortuitous timing and the generosity of my talented cousin--her reps kept me hopping and I got my "10,000 hours" in pretty fast.
What is your creative process? I'm driven by color. Combinations of color. Often the natural world just hands you the answers on a silver platter. When I look at caterpillar or butterfly patterns and coloring I'm just off and running. The shapes of the boards I work on also influence my creative process. The long skinny pieces that I create make it really easy to tell a narrative from the bottom up--something growing up from soil, crawling up, flying up, layers building up. I start with a small kernel of an idea and then go from there. Then the colors reveal themselves. A recent work, titled Growing Season, is whites, purples and greens. Those colors chose the painting. I'm not sure I had much to do with that. I once had an exhibition called "The Color of Joy." I really do try to create like that. I've tried to tone down or mute my works in the past. But, that never works out well for me. My works always, somehow, go bright. I've come to terms with the fact that my DNA is what it is and soft tones and neutral tones are not what I'm supposed to be working with. Back to color. It's infinite, isn't it? No beginning or end. Like the Universe. It's thrilling to imagine the possibilities.
“My personal goal with my work is to make people smile. I've been told by people who have purchased my work that it makes them happy to see it--when they walk into a room or whatever. A pretty simple objective because life is complex.”
~Leslie Pilgrim