Lesley Riley Exhibiting Artists Interview October 2023

Speakers: Lesley Riley, Artist, LesleyRiley.com

Lesley Riley: My first solo exhibit, Modern Botanicals, was at Artists & Makers Studios. I call it Modern Botanicals because I was using the 160 or so year old Cyanotype process, but bringing it into modern times by combining it digitally with apps on my phone to create more colorful, interesting and complex images. When you mix the blue and white Cyanotype prints that well, you don't mix them, you're layering them with other images that you have, like textures, other prints of other artwork you've done, background colors and things. Then you get something more interesting and more complex than just the blue and the white results you get from Cyanotype. It was in 2019 and at that time, nobody else was doing that work and I really haven't seen that many other people doing it at this point still. So Modern Botanicals is like an elevated form of Cyanotype, but it's also a digital print making process. The prints that I have printed out and mounted for exhibit don't exist in the real world until they're printed out. They're totally done digitally, which I find fascinating that there's, it's not something that I would have been able to do before the time we had the times and the technology, that's the word I'm looking for, times and technology that we have today.

Lesley Riley: Honestly, my favorite part of exhibiting at Artists & Makers Studios is working with Judith HeartSong. I've known her for quite some time. We're also birthday twins if that has any impact on this friendship. But she's an amazing force in this art world, and every time she's had a vision, she's brought it to fruition and she's just a joy to work with. On another note, the gallery in Maryland, the studios and gallery that she started in Maryland is a wonderful place to exhibit because it has winding corridors and secret, it's not, they're not secret, but it's like walking through like a maze and you keep coming upon different exhibits or different art. Plus you get to peek in the artist studios, and I think combining the gallery and the studios together makes it really exciting for your customers, your admirers, people to come to an exhibit that you would have there because it's not just walking into a big room with a lot of art on the walls. Now, I'm not sure what it's like at the other new Artists & Makers Studios, but that's what the Maryland one is like, and that's what I enjoy about working and exhibiting at Artists & Makers Studios.

Lesley Riley: I'd have to call myself a multimedia artist, mixed media artist, whichever you like and prefer to use. I started out working with fabric and textiles as a quilter. Back in the seventies, I got into bookmaking and mixed media and then the print making with the Cyanotypes and Eco printing. I like to be able to combine all these things. So I've made textiles and collage, textile collages and quilts with my prints on fabric and on paper. I make books with them. I make fabric books. I could consider myself a dabbler, but I'm also an instructor and I have authored 10 books. So I guess I'm kind of an authority on all of the things that I do. It's always been more important to me to share what I know than to exhibit my work even. I started out teaching and writing books just so that I could spread the word about how much, how important it is to have something to do that makes you happy and gives you pleasure. And I hope I've influenced enough people to be art makers and creators at any level. You can start today. You can start at any point in time. But I think the endorphins that flow when we are creating are the best healthiest thing we can do for ourselves.