The Sound of Your Own Wheels
13 May - 21 June
The Sound of Your Wheels, presents a collection of new works from Leslie Holt that explore the experience of mental health conditions from historical, scientific, and personal points of view.
(detail)
With content sourced from historical documents, diagnostic language, scientific research, poetry, and childhood memories, these works contain stitches that have been embroidered on the canvas, along with acrylic paint splashed across it.
Through the intimate act of stitching my parents’ handwriting, I am connecting with their quirky brilliance, frailty, and resilience beyond my expectations. The accumulated body of work becomes quasi portraits of their minds and explorations of the ways records reveal and obscure the full reality of a human being. – LH
(detail)
These pieces present tactile, physical evidence of an earnest and deeply personal reckoning with mental health, memory loss, global upheaval, and inherited family history. Through layered textures and expressive gestures, they give form to the invisible—transforming emotional struggle into something tangible, intimate, and enduring.
I use embroidery thread to draw and create chunks of color in combination with acrylic stains of saturated hues. The act of stitching is intimate and tender, in contrast to the stains that emphasize the unruly quality of these vulnerable states. – LH
Leslie Holt is from Bethesda, Maryland and in 2012 returned to the DC metro area after living in St. Louis for 20 years. She received a BFA in Painting at Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA in Painting at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. Leslie has taught studio art, art history and art appreciation on the college level since 2001. She has also worked as a social worker and advocate for people with developmental disabilities, mental illness, and people receiving welfare benefits. Currently she is Co-director of Red Dirt Studio, a warehouse studio for a group of independently practicing artists and creative professionals. Her years-long project, Hello Masterpiece, has been collected by hundreds of Hello Kitty loving art collectors world-wide.
Artwork List
In Order of Appearance
The liquid world goes on forever (after Maud Casey), embroidery, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 48 x 60
It’s a Matter of Definition, embroidery and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60
The Calculus of Pain, embroidery, silkscreen and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36
The Sound of Your Own Wheels, embroidery, silkscreen and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36
The Howl Returns (after Ocean Vuong), acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 48 x 60
Wold Book III (coma), embroidery on canvas, 48 x 36
Unbearable Lightness of Being (weight log with and without pants), embroidery on raw canvas, 48 x 24
And God Said:, embroidery, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 48 x 24
Self Talk (stop being so intense), embroidery on raw canvas, 48 x 24
You must remember this (dementia list), embroidery and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 24
Logic and Proportion, embroidery, silkscreen and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36
It Must Be Wounded (after Ocean Vuong), acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 48 x 60
Fool, embroidery and acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20
Mellow Out (?), embroidery and acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20
Allow This, embroidery and acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20
Maybe is God, embroidery and acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20
Prevent Disaster, embroidery and acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20
Must Watch TV, embroidery and acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20
Redacted (milk), embroidery and silkscreen on canvas, 48 x 36