BIO
I began my artistic journey as a painter and illustrator. I eventually found myself transitioning to a career as a graphic artist and I’ve been fortunate to operate my own freelance design business for over 25 years. In the last decade, I’ve been able to transition back to pursuits in fine art. While my aesthetic tendencies had not shifted significantly over the years, my medium of choice had changed quite a bit. Leslie lives in the Austin area with her husband of over 30 years, her loyal dog Frida and two cats.
I was able to tap into my unique skillset as a longtime graphics professional to create an original technique that synthesizes the artistry of both design and photography. In late 2008, I created my very first digital collage using my own photos and Adobe Creative Suite. I quickly realized that the possibilities were endless and ten years later I am still chasing that elusive vision of the perfect image. So today, I call myself a digital artist. Of course, this means eating the words of my 20-year-old self: “I will never create art on a computer”. Let’s face it, the world has changed; the rules have changed and I can live with that.
Leslie is honored to have been included in the 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019 People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall. She has participated in dozens of exhibits over the last couple of years, including several shows featuring digital art. She won an honorable mention in the Round Rock Arts BIG Show in 2018. She also created custom artwork that was featured on the cover of the Georgetown Arts and Cultural Guide two years in a row. She has an active exhibit schedule planned for 2019, including a 3-person digital show at Link & Pin Gallery. Currently, her works can be found hanging in various venues and juried shows around the state as well as in galleries where she is represented.
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“... your art takes us in places that are like time. It feels like memories, but of something we might not actually be able to remember. Quite astonishing!” —VC
ARTIST STATEMENT
The space between reality and illusion is where the magic happens. It’s in that moment when they slide into each other and produce an otherness, a sublime encounter.
Time is on Our Side, In-Between Collection
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My artwork is created using an original technique that synthesizes the artistry of design and photography. I work with natural forms to create surreal environments in which my photos are assembled into the spaces and patterns of my designs. As the imagery interacts to create the highlights, shadows and contours of the new image, it unfolds to deeper discoveries within the composition. Because each piece may use up to a dozen photographs, there is always something new to encounter. Mazes, passageways and mirrors captivate my surrealist sensibilities and drive the design concept of these illusionary pieces. My photography is captured at every opportunity and selected based on theme, location, color and texture. Much of my work mixes natural elements with architectural components. I use recurring themes of water, light, and reflection. I find the shimmering images and ephemeral changes of light to be a powerful reminder of the fleeting nature of our visions. The works are grouped into collections based on a favorite artist or song. Then each piece is named from a lyrical phrase relating to the collection theme. My art is optimistic and celebrates beauty. The complex and layered works are meant to be visual encounters that reveal a place you might not recognize—but somehow, have been waiting to visit.
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kellcreative@gmail.com
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512.917.0104
IN-BETWEEN COLLECTION
Come Along, In-Between Collection
Vistas provide a vantage point that highlights the relationship of our own presence in space with the mysteries of a far-off horizon. The sensation of our unique memories and experiences layered with possibilities of the
Where We’re Going, In-Between Collection
unseen is dizzying. These images seek the shadowed realities that can not be seen until we reach the apex and look back, revealing the echoes of lifetimes playing across the topography. It’s in the space that lies inbetween that we find where we belong.
What We Want, In-Between Collection
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512.917.0104
MYSTIC COLLECTION
I cannot deny my tendencies towards surrealism with this collection, nor my leanings towards the sublime. As with most of my work, water and light play an important role as well as the little creatures that can be discovered.
Feel the Sky, Mystic Collection
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This series of drawings are a melding of my Infinity Collection designs with drawings from earlier Mystic pieces. I’ve used a stylized tree design to create a surreal mirror maze. The effect is a glimpse of a world that transcends time and space.
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kellcreative@gmail.com
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512.917.0104
Looking for Somewhere, Mystic Collection
MYSTIC COLLECTION
Your Gypsy Soul, Mystic Collection (detail left)
One More Dream, Mystic Collection, (Artist Master)
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INFINITY COLLECTION
Mazes and mirrors captivate my surrealist side and drive the design concept of these illusionary pieces. The shimmering images and ephemeral changes of light work together to create an altered vision of reality. The collection is optimistic and celebrates wonder while creating an encounter that reveals a fresh glimpse into a new world of endless possibilities.
Wings Spread Bright, Infinity Collection
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Paradise Waits, Infinity Collection
“Working with more than a dozen layers of digital images, Austin artist Leslie Kell creates an intense feeling and a visual memory unlike any other art form with her highly expressive works.” –VV
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kellcreative@gmail.com
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512.917.0104
CREATIVE PROCESS
“Inspiration comes in many forms. Sometimes you see it coming, like the day I stepped into a Hall of Mirrors in San Antonio”.
The creation of an image begins in the sketchbook and is developed into a line drawing. Images are selected to fill the spaces. Photos are based not only on theme, subject matter, and location, but also for color, texture, value, and design. Most of the photos for “Into the Sun” were captured in Alaska.
As the images are layered and combined into the spaces of the drawing and the process progresses, the image begins to emerge.
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Into the Sun, Infinity Collection (Artist Master)
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kellcreative@gmail.com
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512.917.0104
ARTIST MASTERS
A selection of my images are transformed into “Artist Masters�. Each Artist Master is an original, one-of-a-kind creation. An archival canvas is printed and hand-stretched, then paint and textural elements are added. The piece is finished with enhanced framing (custom designed for each individual piece) to create a somewhat sculptural presentation. Once a design is
In a Place of Mirrors, Mystic Collection, (Artist Master)
produced as an Artist Master, it is not reproduced in the same way again. All works come with a signed Certificate of Authenticity.
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Spring from Night, Infinity Collection, (Artist Master)
CUSTOM PRINTS
My images are highly flexible and can be adapted to provide unique options for collectors ranging from museum quality oneOnce in a Lifetime, Mindscape Collection. Custom print on canvas.
of-a-kind Artist Masters to limited-edition prints on fine art paper to open editions on metal, canvas and more.
Feel the Sky, Mystic Collection Custom triptych on canvas.
I offer virtual hangings to my collectors and clients so we can work together to fill the space just right. All of my prints are produced with archival museum-grade materials Where We’re Going, In-Between Collection. Custom print on canvas.
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kellcreative@gmail.com
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512.917.0104
and hand signed.
CINEMAGRAPHS
I’ve set some of my mesmerizing images in motion with my Kinetic Collection. The vibrancy and
He Walks in Quiet Solitude
energy of the ethereal images will activate your imagination and inspire a metaphysical awe.
View at lesliekell.com
Time Passages
Born Before the Wind
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CUSTOM ART
Through my unique technique I am able to create customized artwork to capture specific locations, special events and various themes for both commercial and private collections. I also offer image licensing of my images.
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kellcreative@gmail.com
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512.917.0104
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[Note: The reception for "Between Space & Time" is this Friday, Aug. 8, from 6-8pm; the show runs through August 30th; and the gallery's regularly open Thursday through Saturday, from 26pm.]
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And yet, holy shit, will that effort be rewarded.
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And when – more to the original point, here – I tell you that Leslie Kell's portion of this two-person show at Link & Pin Gallery is a display of her digital art … well, then you'll know: All the possibilities of taking the easy way out, of rendering visuals that are less than complex and compelling and, basically, stunning: Those are possibilities that Kell has no truck with. I can barely imagine the tactics of expert manipulation she's visited upon her photographic images, the multitude of cut-and-pastes and filterings and enhancements and focus-shifts she's used to modify her pictures of architecture and foliage. Kell's working the sort of high-level graphic wizardry that's impressive in and of itself, even when it doesn't result in – as it so often does, in this exhibition – in exquisite beauty. That, when framing her printed works, the artist chooses to transcend the digital and adds brass fittings and polished branches and more to complement and intensify the beauty of each bright wonder … well, I'm just shoring up my case here: This is work created by someone who gives a damn. This is work that defines and glorifies the word "painstaking." And all you have to do, citizen, is find a parking space or a bike rack or a nearby bus-stop and walk on into the gallery. And that's not much effort, really, is it, in this crowded urban domain of ours?
Married duo's new art exhibition at Wally Workma reviewed
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So when I tell you that New York-born Greta Olivas does mixed-media works composed of watercolor and drawing and collage and who-knows-what-else, you'll know that, unlike so many gambits of that combo that you might've previously suffered through the viewing of … this stuff, what Olivas has wrought, is beautiful work indeed. The sort of things – often eerie landscapes with what appear to be the ruins of castles and/or cities on the horizon – that you can stare at for a long time, absorbing the shapes and shades of the subtly hued scenes, contemplating their potential as settings of ancient epics or future mysteries.
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MUSIC
It's like, ah, remember that stage play from A Chick And A Dude Productions several months ago? Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale? Wherein Shanon Weaver wore a customized fatsuit to play the role of a dying man who weighs around 600 pounds? And it was a serious play, and it was a harrowing situation displaying itself across the Hyde Park Theatre stage, and it would've been so easy for Weaver to, in any number of ways, to do a shitty job. And yet, watching him take on this tough role, you could see that the strength of Weaver's skill was matched by his (and his director's) simply (as if) not making any of the thousand shitty, ineffective choices he so easily could have made.
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This is why, when some people hear the term "digital art," they might reach for their guns: It's relatively easy to create finished, polished, high-end-looking works that are nonetheless aesthetic trash.
You get what I'm saying here?
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That's just human nature: Few of us give enough of a damn to put sufficient effort into available industries. And so, when technology affords more convenient access to formerly hardwon creative tools, more lazy fools will use that technology casually, without expending sufficient thought or energy or time in Paradise Paved by Leslie Kell exploration of its parameters and possibilities. And what comes of this is what the wannabe practitioners might call "art" but which is just, well, flashy-looking pieces of shit. [Note: Damn you, technology – look what you've done.]
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And you know that the easier a system is to operate, the more people will attempt to operate it; and that the more people attempting to operate a system, the more mediocrity will creep into the results of that operation.
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exquisite beauty.”
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this exhibition – in
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so often does, in
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doesn’t result in – as it
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Link & Pin's Newest Exhibition Soars on Digital Wings
impressive in and of
Local artists offer a show that overclocks the eyes with beauty.
graphic wizardry that’s
BY WAYNE ALAN BRENNER, 4:45PM, TUE. AUG. 5
sort of high-level
Link & Pin's Newest Exhibition Soars on Digital Wings
You know how easy it is to do so many things badly, of course: We all know that.
And you know that the easier a system is to operate, the more people will attempt to operate it; and that the more people attempting to operate a system, the more mediocrity will creep into the results of that operation.
That's just human nature: Few of us give enough of a damn to put sufficient effort into available industries. And so, when technology affords more convenient access to formerly hardwon creative tools, more lazy fools will use that technology casually, without expending sufficient thought or energy or time in Paradise Paved by Leslie Kell exploration of its parameters and possibilities. And what comes of this is what the wannabe practitioners might call "art" but which is just, well, flashy-looking pieces of shit.
[Note: Damn you, technology – look what you've done.]
“Kell’s working the
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all over creation
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EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Art , 1986, Texas A&M - Commerce
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2019 “Floating Points” – Georgetown Art Center – curated group show “Art of Celebration” Art for the People Gallery, Austin TX – juried exhibit 2019 People’s Gallery Exhibition at Austin City Hall, Austin, TX – juried exhibit 2019 Round Rock Arts Interlude, An Art Exhibit – juried exhibit 2019 re[IMAGINE] – juried exhibit 2018 “Dulce Bytes”, Kerr Arts and Cultural Center, Curated Group Show “Sense of Place”, Cultivate 7twelve, Waco TX, Invitational Group Show “Elsewhere”, Link & Pin Art Space - June 2018 – 3 Person Show Round Rock Arts BIG show – “ What Have I Done?” Awarded Honorable Mention September: D3: Electric Dreams, Austin Bergstrom International Airport – 3 Person Show November: D3: Pixelscapes, Gallery at the J – 3 Person Show 2017 “How Did They Do That?”, Gallery at the J – Invitational Group Show Mixed Media Group Show – Lost Pines Art Center, Georgetown, TX West Austin Studio Tour Art at the Y, Townlake YMCA , Austin, TX – Solo show The Big Show – Texas State University, Round Rock Arts – Juried show “Elsewhere”, North Hills Gallery, Austin, TX – 3 Person Show 22
2016 Georgetown Arts and Cultural Guide 2016–17 – Cover art Electron Salon, L ACDA , Los Angeles – Invitational Group Show 2016 Art Hop Competition, Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, semifinalist , Art on 5th Gallery Third Coast National, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi – National Juried show “Pixels & Patina” - Link & Pin Art Space – 2 Person show “Behind the Seen” - Kerr Arts and Cultural Center, Kerrville – 2 Person show “Collective Dimensions: The Space Within”, Old Bakery & Emporium, Austin – 3 Person show 2015 2015 People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall, Austin, TX – Juried show Gallery Georgetown 2015 featured art , Arts and Culture Guide cover The Vineyard at Florence – Solo show Light Space & Time Online Gallery, 5th Annual “CityScapes” Art Exhibition: “Hear the Highway Breathing ”– Special Merit Award Old Bakery and Emporium Art Gallery – 2 Person show Third Coast National, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX – National Juried show Georgetown Art Hop Juried Exhibition, Georgetown Art Center – National Juried show Dougherty Arts Center, Austin, TX – Solo show 2014 2014 People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall, Austin, TX Dougherty Arts Center – Free Expressions Juried Show
“Between Space & Time” - Link & Pin, Austin – 2 Person show North Hills Gallery – Creative Arts Society Juried Show 2014 Third Coast National Juried Show, Corpus Christi, TX Wildfire, Georgetown, TX – Solo show “The Mirror Effect” St . David’s, Austin TX – Solo show 2014 People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall, Austin, TX Round Rock Arts: IMAGINE Juried Show Austin-Bergstrom International Airport – Gate Area Posters
2010 Fair Bean Coffee, Real Gallery, Austin, TX – Solo show Scarbrough Building Lobby, Austin – Solo show Live Oak Art Center 2010 Juried Exhibition, Columbus, TX “Rhythms of Nature” Juried Exhibition, studio2gallery, Austin MSC Forsyth Center Galleries, Bryan TX “For the Love of Art”, Walker ’s Gallery, San Marcos, TX Haven Gallery, Austin, TX
2013 ArtList .com – People’s Choice Award Manhattan Arts Int . “Healing Power of Art” Exhibition – Juried show 2013 AVAA WEST show, Austin, TX – Invitational group show Live Oak Art Center 2013 Juried Exhibition, Columbus, TX Dougherty Arts Center, Austin TX – Juried show Gallery by Jeana Marino, Austin ,TX – Invitational group show
2009 Central Market Cafe, Westgate – Solo show Live Oak Art Center 2009 Juried Exhibition, Columbus,TX “Digital Diversity ” Juried Open 2009, Topanga Canyon Gallery “Organic: Basic Inspiration” Juried Exhibition, studio2gallery SNAP TO GRID: Los Angeles Center for Digital Art , L.A ., CA
HONORS and AWARDS
Round Rock Arts BIG show – “ What Have I Done?” Awarded Honorable Mention Dougherty Arts Center – Free Expressions Juried Show –Awarded Best of Show North Hills Gallery – Creative Arts Society Juried Show –Awarded Best of Show Light Space & Time Online Gallery, 5th Annual “CityScapes” Art Exhibition, Special Merit Award The ArtList .com People Choice Winner – March 2013 Old Bakery Emporium Art Gallery Juried Show, Juror HONOR ABLE MENTION: Live Oak Art Center 2009 Juried Exhibition, Columbus, TX
2012 2012 People’s Gallery at Austin City Hall, Austin, TX – Juried show Scarbrough Building, Austin, TX – Solo show AVAA 35th Anniversary Show, Austin, TX – Juried show Luminaria, San Antonio, TX – performance collaboration Art on the Roof, Austin TX – Invitational group show Summer Eclectica – Phoenix Trade Depot , Austin TX – Invitational group show 2011 Featured Artist , Studio 2 gallery, Austin, TX Vino 100, Round Rock , TX – Solo show North Hills Gallery, Austin, TX – Solo show Jung Center, Houston TX – Solo show Art Across the Americas - National Juried Exhibition, UT AVAA Members Show • Austin Art Space • Austin, TX EAST (East Austin Studio Tour) – Real Gallery Origin Magazine Art Show – Quattro Gallery
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VOLUNTEER Austin Creative Arts Society, Public Relations, 2019 Austin Creative Arts Society, President , 2017–2018 Austin Creative Arts Society, 2012–present
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CONNECT
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Come Along, In-Between Collection
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