Artist Profile: Kathy Bonnema Leslie

By JACOB DORAN

Bigfork Eagle

If you're not an art-lover, you may never have heard of serigraphs.

You may, however, be familiar with terms such as silkscreen, screen-print or stencil printing, which refer to the same type of printmaking and the art form for which Bigfork artist Kathy Bonnema Leslie is best known.

For twelve years, now, Leslie has enjoyed representation at ArtFusion, on Electric Avenue, where her serigraphs have sold exceptionally well. In fact, of all the galleries in which her art is displayed, her affiliation with ArtFusion owner and founder Pamme Reed remains her strongest working relationship. That relationship was one of the factors that brought her to Bigfork and has enabled her to support herself entirely as an artist.

Originally from Ft. Collins, Colo., Leslie discovered early on that she possessed a certain creative flair and love for art. Reflecting on her childhood, she doesn't remember a time when she wasn't engaged in some kind of art.

She painted actively, throughout her high school years, during which time she also in became involved in ceramics. For a while, she even tried to make a living as a potter. However, she soon discovered that pottery alone was not enough to support her.

In college, she devoted herself almost exclusively to oil painting, which was the basis of her university work. Eventually, she earned her Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the University of Northern Colorado.

In addition to her formal education, she has both taken and taught numerous workshops in screen-printing. Owing to her own desire to always be exposed to new things, learn new techniques, and commit what she has learned to the next generation of artists, she continues to attend new workshop, as well as teach them.

When she discovered serigraphy as an art form, it held a strong appeal for her. She saw it as a way to both maximize her art production and cater to an often-neglected market, which is primarily consists of individuals who, although they are drawn to art, could not afford more expensive pieces.

Leslie found that, because of the amount of time that it takes to produce a single painting, she had to sell her paintings at a price that would offset the many hours of labor and make it worthwhile. Although she still enjoys painting and continues to produce original paintings, she has come to appreciate the benefits of turning out multiple original serigraphs that reflect a single work, through the use of a series of silk screens.

An original, hand-pulled serigraph represents one of the highest quality art prints available. While the majority of lithographs, commercial serigraphs and Iris prints rely on film and computer imaging to inexpensively mass-produce art, Leslie individually creates each serigraph by hand. Each color requires a separate, hand-drawn screen, which she painstakingly arranges, precisely aligning the various components to overlay the previous ones at exactly the right place in the serigraph.

Paint is then transferred through a fine mesh of fabric onto the paper to form the individual layers. Everything but the details that make up the next layer of the serigraph is blocked using an impervious substance to coat the unprinted areas, and the ink is forced through the remaining "open areas" on the screen. The printing is done utilizing acrylic paint, which—layer by layer—is applied to museum-quality, 100 percent cotton rag-paper.

A single printing can take from two weeks to a month, or even longer, to complete. Once she finishes a series, she can never repeat the image.

In the beginning, Leslie produces about 50 prints per series, which required a significant amount of work. Today, she turns out about 35 original prints in every series, which she sees as a good balance that allows her to sell each piece for around $100, making it affordable to most people who wouldn't normally purchase original artwork.

"I like the idea that more people are able to buy my work and have it in their homes," Leslie said. "Because my serigraphs do sell well in Montana, it enables me to be full-time. That's very rewarding.

"Art is hard to do as a profession, but it's what I love. I never wanted to do anything else. The biggest plus for any artist who is able to be full-time artist is just being able to do what you love. This is what I love to do. It's what I want to be doing."

In the past, Leslie wasn't able to be full-time as an artist. Working miscellaneous jobs, in Colorado, she enjoyed pursuing another love: skiing.

It was while skiing, in Aspen, Colo., that she met her husband. Her husband wanted to be a physical therapist, and as they considered building a life together, they decided that Montana was the place to do so. Since she had never been to Montana, the idea of living there appealed to both her sense of adventure and her artistic attraction to her natural surroundings.

Although she has done figural studies in the past and experimented with still-life drawings, Leslie has always been drawn to her surroundings, which is what she prefers to center her art around. Not surprisingly, she always returned to her natural surroundings as the subject of her art.

"You don't choose the art that you do," she explained. "It chooses you. An art teacher once told me that, and it's so true. It's not something that you think about doing. It comes naturally to you. When you sit down to paint or to create, it's already there, inside of you, waiting for you to bring it out.

"I think that art is really about our humanness. The visual arts, music, and any other form of creative expression are our humanness made tangible for other people. Art is, at the same time, an external and an internal road. It's an external expression, and it's an internal journey as well. It's our way of figuring out and interacting with our world and with ourselves."

As the next leg of that journey, Leslie and her husband loaded their 1972 Wagoneer and headed for Montana. They originally looked in Bozeman and Missoula, where her husband attended the University of Montana to get his degree.

However, both of them felt that Missoula was too big and wanted to live someplace more wooded. Thus, when here husband later got a job offer in Bigfork, where Leslie had already established herself with ArtFusion, they eagerly accepted and found a home a few miles south of town. Bigfork seemed to be the perfect place for both of them to pursue their careers.

"ArtFusion is, hands down, one of the best galleries that I've ever been with," Leslie said of her excitement in making Bigfork her permanent home and being near what she considered to be her core gallery. "Pamme Reed has such a drivenness to help artists succeed. She's definitely the best representation I've ever had. It's been a very positive relationship.

"Of course, you always hope that people connect with your art in some way. It's all about the connection. There is a little anonymity, because you don't actually get to meet the people; but, in reverse, I sometimes have people tell me that they feel connected to me, and they feel like they know me in a way because of my work. It's really a profound thing when people contact me through e-mail and through my website, to tell me about the connection they felt as a result of seeing or purchasing my work."

Leslie is currently represented at ArtFusion, in Bigfork; at Center Street Gallery, in Jackson, Wyo.; at Vault Gallery of Fine Art, in Sonora, Cal.; at Second Street Gallery, in Bandon, Ore.; and at Artifacts, in Bozeman. Selected juried exhibits have included The San Diego Watercolor Society International Exhibition, The Taos National Exhibit of American Watercolor, The Midwest Watercolor Society National Exhibition and Watercolor West National Exhibition.

Among the honor she has received, she was selected for presentation to the Governor of Colorado, finalist selected for exhibition by Artist Magazine in the experimental category and a selected exhibitor with the Smithsonian ARTrain. Notable collectors who presently exhibit her artwork include the State of Colorado, Colorado State University and Marin Community Medical Center, San Francisco.