Leslie Bijoux
Acrobatic
Acrylic, mixd media
20in  x 16in

More info
This painting started with a collage that looked like a circus rolling into town. That image is covered up with layers of paint, but the dizzying energy remains - tumbling, spinning, running, balancing...perhaps a trapeze and high wire act.

Artist Bio
Leslie Bijoux is a Somers, New York-based painter and mixed-media artist. Her current work reflects a fascination with mark-making, layers and textures. She often uses unconventional tools such as legos to create patterns and textures, and sharp objects such as nails to scrape through layers of paint. Many of her pieces incorporate her hand written poetry as collage elements.
Bijoux graduated with a BA in Art from SUNY, Oswego and has shown her work in various exhibits throughout the region.
Artist Statement
I have a blank canvas and there's a bit of anxiety there. I don't know what I'm going to say until I say it. I choose a color that speaks to me in that moment and plunge in. It could be a thin wash of color; maybe it's a thick smear. I add paint and look to see how it fells...how I feel. I add more color. More layers. Textures. I remove paint. Scrape it off with nails. Wash it off. The paint I remove is as important as what I add. Add and subtract. You have to trust the process because for much of the time it just feels like a hot mess. Until it doesn't.

Curator’s Note: Leslie Bijoux’s piece, Acrobatic, began with an image of a circus. It’s virtually unseen after her painting and mark making are complete, but Bijoux has certainly maintained the high energy of the original dizzying image. Her work has a natural rhythm to them as the layers are being built, but then her mark making on top of it all seems to hold more fervor and immediacy. Looking deeply you can see a bold feminine figure in the bottom looking on at a circular demarcation including ladders and lines. Are we higher above the acrobat looking over them at their world below? Or are we looking at fragments of memories from show after show? Interpretation is the beauty of abstract.

Instagram Handle
@lbijouxart