Artist Statement
Leslie Lehr Daly
With my work, I examine the existence and permanence of forms and objects found in nature and in the sea and re-imagine them through a more tangible abstraction. The dilemma in translating spongy, supple, real life forms with life and movement into pieces of structural permanence is the initial challenge. Through intense heat and manipulation, cold, rigid mild steel and/or hard plastics take on movement and form.
For example, in sea urchins, touch elicits a prompt reaction from the spines, which converge toward the touch point. When translated into steel (Anemone, steel), you see the aftermath of the touch...the spines have contracted into a permanent sense of movement. In Anemone-plastic, the spines yield to pressure only momentarily, re-coilingafter the touch has passed.
In Ova, recycled plastic is the material of choice used to form hundreds of 12 sided flowers lashed together with wire to a steel endoskeleton. Using the paper folding techniques of origami, I deconstructed the process into cutting out twelve panels per flower and through slots, joined panel to panel into a spherical floral form.
Safe Passagewas a commissioned work and is cited in Mason, Ohio, at CedarVillageRetirementVillage. Commissioned by family members in the memory of their mother, the family requested that the sculpture have an organic feel. Interpretation was left to me. Throughout the process, pictures were taken and emailed to family members to insure the direction was appropriate. From start to finish, the sculpture took 3 months to complete and install. The trunk base was cut from various lengths and widths of pipe, sliced in half and welded together to form textural surface. Later, smaller sheets of hand cut steel were welded, heated and hammered and polished to the surface. Three arms/branches, which represented the three children, were formed using the same technique as the base. Using the lotus flower form as inspiration, holes were cut into a 30" diameter mild steel spun bowl. Cradling the bowl in it's arms, the branches enveloped the form and wove through it's openings. Finally, resting on an upper branch as if pausing between flight, a bird with an olive branch. Mrs. Anne Schwarz left Germany on the last boat to arrive in the United States before WWII began. Safe Passage was dedicated to her safe and timely passage from Germany to the United States. The bird and olive branch speak to the hope of peace.
The basis of Sea Sponge forms a cluster of hand cut, hand forged steel pipe welded together into an organic body. Allowing the outer shell to rust, the inner shell was painted a soft, sea green. The entire sculpture sits upon a recycled glass base giving the viewer the opportunity to look through the tubes into the glass.
Foliate I and Foliate II explore the ephemeral of nature. Through out the four seasons, nature experiences life and death. Foliate I and II occur at the moment of waning between life and death whereby the limbs are bare, bereft of supple leaves, but life still clings to it through the existence of a few pods...To further achieve the line between life and decay, tree limbs are weathered in finish whereas the pods hold on to the last bit of life with a tinge of color.