“Wrong Pipe”
Ceramic, metal, plastic, paper, clay
7.5x8x6″
2013

Briefly describe the work that you do.

My practice is engaged with tactile, phenomenological experience in sculpture that merges the corporal and mental imaginations.These pieces explore a morphogenetic vocabulary of layered masses, planes and openings. My pieces are rife with allusions to the body. At the same time they suggest the plastic, provisional, and uncertain world of a new and transgenic nature, where corporeal and mechanical entities recombine.

At what point in your life did you decide to become an artist?

When I was little I assumed that all the art was already made a long time ago by great men. It took me awhile to see that what I was always doing and thinking about was art.

Tell us a little about your background and how that influences you as an artist.

I do not have much of a storyline about this. I am a white woman from the suburbs in Ohio. I have had many advantages and many personal struggles, as we all have had. I am grateful to have been given the Shambhala Buddhist teachings which have vividly focused my experience and opened my heart.

“No Los Son”
Ceramic, metal, glass, paper, clay
7.5x8x6″
2013

What types of conceptual concerns are present in your work? How do those relate to the specific process(es) or media you use?

For me, materiality is meaning. The artist’s body interacts with things; both are changed.
Touching and looking are entwined in my work. The forms are packed together, both additive and layered, but also carved, porous and eroded. The pieces are multicolored and crenellated like a coral reef. Materials are varied: I use metal, wood, paper clay, plaster, pigments, glass, rubber and stone in a way that is rich and transformative.

“Co-Host”
Ceramic, metal, glass, paper, clay
7.5x8x6″
2013

We once heard Chuck Close say he did not believe in being inspired, rather in working hard everyday. What motivates you in your studio practice?

I agree with Chuck, in that being constantly immersed in your studio practice keeps it in the forefront of your mind so the work becomes the reference point for the rest of your experience. Everything then leads back to the studio in some way, everything becomes useful and meaningful. But it is also important to me to open that up, so I am not obsessing over the same set of ideas. I need to be able to be surprised, even shocked, to move forward in my work.

What artists living or non-living influence your work?

Just about all of them. I am most indebted to all ceramists in world cultural history, and the great women artists in the US and Latin America in the 60’s and 70’s. Louise Bourgeois! Gego!

When you are not making art what types of activities and interests do you engage in? 

I read, garden, cook, practice meditation, walk my dog, love my husband, teach and avoid housework.

About 

Linda Leslie Brown’s recent work incorporates a variety of practices, including sculpture, installation, painting and video/sound. Her work engages the interdependent relationships between nature, objects and human creative perception. Brown’s recent sculptural works are rife with allusions to the body. At the same time they suggest the plastic, provisional, and uncertain world of a new and transgenic nature, where corporeal and mechanical entities recombine.
Brown has exhibited her work regionally and nationally. Recent exhibitions include the Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham MA, AMP Gallery, Provincetown MA, Bannister Gallery, Rhode Island College, Providence RI and Vessels Gallery, Boston MA. She is the recipient of grants and fellowship residencies from the St. Botolph Club Foundation, FPAC, Women’s Studio Center, Hambidge Center, and I-Park among others. She is represented by Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA.

She is Professor and the Foundation Studies Program Director at NESAD, Suffolk University in Boston MA.

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All images copyright of the artist and used with their permission.