Biography / Artist Statement

Biography

Leslie Pruneau grew up in Raleigh, NC and received her BFA at East Carolina University, working under such artists as Clarence E.Morgan, Cheryl Goldsleger and art historian Biruta Erdman.  Throughout her childhood her parents traveled extensively and she was exposed to many different art influences.  As an adult, she lived in New York City and Berlin, Germany for over a decade and currently resides in Raleigh maintaining a studio, teaching art classes and giving workshops.  Having been involved in the arts for over thirty years, she also donates time, money and artworks to various groups in the area and abroad.  Her work is in several private collections in the US as well as in Europe.

Artist Statement

In the past years, my work has taken on a conceptual style. Each piece grows independently through the acquisitions of learned art techniques as well as on a trial and error application basis with new materials. The processes differ greatly and many times, the idea evolves as the work unfolds. My language for art is best translated through accumulations of found objects, the detritus’ of our society’s excesses, or the act of mark making on a canvas which must explore new boundaries.

Many pieces could be categorized as “art about art”, but that is not the clear-cut message.  Unless the objects or marks can assimilate an underlying meaning, they get edited out of the work.  A piece may seem humorous or amusing, but at the same time allude to more complex politics like our populated societies, vanity, greed  or perhaps a mockery of consumerism.  I believe that art is meant to entertain the viewer as well as to make a statement.  There has always been a necessity for diversity in my works, whether it is within a series, or within an individual piece.  This is my pursuit as an artist; to construct something until it seems almost perfect, then to deconstruct the piece, and then to reconstruct it again until the visual communication is exposed.