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Leanne Larson

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Thief in the Night

Oil on Canvas 48"x36"
Oil on Canvas 48"x36"

Thief in the Night | Media List


Statement









My recent works reflect on the authoritarian environment of my youth. The content is cathartic and the subject matter is about the human condition. Each work allows me to think critically about my past as it relates to me in the present as a mother.
In my printed work, I restrict my focus to objects that symbolize portions of my childhood experience. These objects act as metaphors and symbols about family, religious traditions, and discipline. I use imagery of torn tattered dresses, long braided hair, barbed wire, and rope to portray hardships and barriers. Additionally, a series of monotypes depicts common household objects used for punishing children. The process of monotype and collograph allows me to experiment with textures and imitate the impressions the object would make on human skin. To accompany the metaphorical essence of my prints, I purposely scratch and scuff the surface of the plates. Also, I manipulate the intensity of the colors to further establish a sense of history.
My paintings, on the other hand, are comprised of narrative vignettes that illustrate particular moments and feelings I experienced as a child. These figurative paintings convey feelings of isolation, rejection, shame, displacement, fear and a lack of self-confidence. The five anonymous forms represented form a linear gesture across the picture plane. Moreover, each form physically shares the same environment, but the use of space and color intensity dislocates one figure to evoke emotion. Additional paintings explore emotions from the literal thinking of biblical references—the way a child may literally interpret a particular quote from the bible. These recent works have included animals and birds with figures to represent and enhance the literal thinking of a child –inspired by memories from my home setting of rural Australia. I use the under-painting technique with oils, and glaze on layers of color helps build atmospheric appearances. It also helps control the color saturation within each figure and acts as an effective method to recede—the figure I represent as myself—against a tenebrous background. A muted palette of complementary colors helps establish connections between my paintings and prints. Furthermore, the compliments of Blue and Orange personally reflect the rural setting rusty dirt and open blue skies. These paintings are large and often much wider than they are high and/or oddly cropped to limit the focus.
Overall, the use of metaphors, parallels, repetition, and oddity in this body of work has founded the visual narration of my past relative to how I perceive it in the present.