ARTIST: Leslie Ebert - Abstract Photographer of Light Energy

Using the medium of macro digital photography, Leslie explores the vibrational nature of our world and the idea of resonance as a universal creative force.  She has been exploring light as subject for ten years and has watched as the images have become ever more complex.  Interested in the physical nature of Light and its philosophical implications, she set off with camera in hand to explore what causes the diversity of shapes and marks emanating within the light around us.

When she first started putting her art out into the public arena in 1992,  she was etching metal plates for printmaking with abstracted botanical sketches as a metaphor for phases of life and personal growth.   Now she use digital technology to transfer images on to aluminum panels to reproduce the luminosity of light.  As her artwork evolved, so did her interest in the relationship between physics and the metaphysical.  Her creative voice has become an exploration into the idea of energy exchange.  Based on a hypotheses of contemporary physics and ancient shamanism; that everything contains vibration, so as we interact with the world around us, we exchange vibrations with what we pay attention to.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I like to say these images of light phenomena found me, as a result of my interest in making art about energy.   At first my attention was pulled to reflections and shadows when a cross form dramatically appeared in my living room every day around the same time, It appeared to come from nowhere.  In response I picked up my camera and started documenting the phenomena. Once I started looking for the origin of the light, more opportunities to photograph light phenomena began appearing. ( Such as the changing color of light as it bounces from one surface say a shrub outside to create a pool of green light on the next surface it hits. ) Each time I took a picture of light in action some new visual element would appear, leading me to want to taking more photographs.  At first these images were intended as resource material for a series of abstract paintings about energy.   Until I heard the Muse’s gentle whisper in my ear during a photography session, ’look closer, look closer’.  In response I turned on the macro setting on my point and shoot camera, where a foreign but somehow familiar world of liquid light, gaseous states and energy storms, appeared.  

Over the last few years the closer I have looked at rays of light the more evolved and complex the photographs have become.  The photographs have continued to take on a life of their own and left me with an erie feeling that they are trying to communicate something.  One Sunday I was folding laundry to NOVA’s the Elegant Universe with physicist Brian Green.  He was talking about vibrating strings and parallel universes when I made a connection.  To me he was talking about the same ideas that were coming through my imagery!  This opened an interest in reading about contemporary physics and an obsessive inquiry into what are these images representing. It took me some time to accept that It doesn't matter what the images may be.  My job as the artist is to get them in front of people, so others might find inspiration in them.   As the photographs continued to evolve as fine art pieces in their own right, It became clear I needed to be getting them out into the world to be experienced. 

This body of work is titled Light Signatures and was photographed in my studio in Portland Oregon as part of a much larger ongoing project that investigates Light Signatures around the globe.  My desire is to document the variety of shapes and structures of light with inquiry into what causes these marks to change.  The images continue to evolve in complexity with each passing year.  Going from simple fields of color and basic geometric structures, to fragmented pieces and explosive bursts that expel energy as if birthing a new era. Possibly documenting changes in our regional energy, as the universal flow in vibration around us responds to us and our emotional reactions to the current wave of exponential growth and shifting sociology. 

ARTIST CV

SOLO   SHOWS

2015    Museum Contempo, Luminance; A 25 year Retrospective, Olympia Washington

    Studio 820, Light Taking Form, Oregon City Oregon

2011    Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery, Featured Artist,  Portland Oregon

2009     Art Etc. Featured Artist,  Portland Oregon

2005    Washington State University, Science Gallery, Vancouver Washington

    Wene' Gallery,  ‘Exploring Quantum’, Portland Oregon

2003     Silver Creek Gallery, ‘Conversations’,  Silverton Oregon

2001     The Gallery at Willamette,  ‘The first ten years, a retrospective’, West Linn Oregon

1999    Gallery 33, ‘Recent work’, Portland Oregon

1997    First Avenue Gallery, ‘Mixed Media’, Portland Oregon 

1996     Waterstone Gallery, ‘Symphony in Paper’, Portland Oregon

1995    Edmonds Art Festival Museum, Edmonds Washington

    Artisan Center Gallery, ‘Stillness in motion’, Portland Oregon

1992    AIA Gallery ‘Impressions’, Portland Oregon

Group Exhibits on DIGITAL DISPLAY

2015    Saatchis Gallery, ‘Digital Display’, London, England

    Louvre Museum, See.Me ‘Exposure Awards’ Paris, France

2013    See.Me Gallery ‘The Story of the Creative’ Queens NewYork

2012     ‘Art Takes Times Square’, electronic billboards, New York, NewYork

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2016    Point Park University, Lawrence Gallery In-VISIBLE,  Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

    Banana Factory Arts Center, Crayola Gallery,  Bethlehem Pennsylvania

2015    Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Gallery, National Association of Women Artist,  New York NY 

    Portland Art Museum; Rental Sales Gallery, Spring exhibit,  Portland Oregon

    Museum Contempo ‘Life in Bloom’,  Olympia Washington

2014    CoCA’ Who Are You’  Seattle Washington

    National Association of Women Artists Gallery,  Winter exhibit, New York New York

2013    Newspace Center for Photography, ‘Now ‘ Portland, Oregon

    Center of Contemporary Art, ‘Collision; past present and future’ Seattle,  Washington

    Museum Contempo, ‘Who is God’,  Shelton, Washington 

    NOoSphere Gallery, ‘Fly On the Wall’ NewYork, NewYork

2012    Waterstone Gallery, ‘Pentimento’, Portland Oregon

    North Shore Art Association, Experimental Art, Gloucester ,Massachusetts

    Chehalem Cultural Center Parrish Gallery,  ‘Oregon Artists Showcase’, Newberg, Oregon

    Gallery 114 ‘Exit Winter’ Juried Guest Artist Show, Portland, Oregon

2011    ‘The All Oregon Art Annual - Professional division’,  Salem, Oregon 

    GDP Studios, ‘New Vibrations in Art’, Shelton Washington

2008    Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center “Illumination” Fort Myers Florida

    Microcosm Gallery‘Soul to Soul’, New York, NewYork

2007    First Presbyterian Church ‘Gifts of Spirit’, Portland Oregon

2006     Coos Art Museum ‘Oregon Artists Biennial’,  Coos Bay Oregon

2005    Peninsula Fine Arts Center, 'On the Edge 2005 ', Newport News Virginia 

2004    Blue Moon Gallery 'Healing Environments' Little Rock Arkansas

2003    Crane Museum‘Celebration of American Paper Arts’ Dalton Massachusetts

2002    ArtStudio Gallery ‘Small Works II’ Santa Fe New Mexico

2001    Waterstone Gallery ‘Collective Impressions’ Portland Oregon 

1997    Omni Gallery,  ‘Invitational’  Portland Oregon

1994       The Ink People Gallery, National Competition, Eureka California

1993       Museum of Fine Art ‘74th National Exhibit’ Springfield Massachusetts

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2015     ArtLifeVideoBlog Day135, the Abstract Photography of Leslie Ebert

2014    NAWA 125th year exhibit catalogue, 

    CoCA, Who Are You exhibit catalogue

    WIPI, Yale Archive, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University

2013    CoCA, Collision, exhibit catalogue

    NOoSphere Gallery, A Fly on the Wall, exhibit Catalogue

    CAP,  Special Collection, art auction catalogue

2012     Diffusion; Unconventional Photography Annual,  Volume IV,  One Twelve Publishing

    Who’ Who in American Art’ #31,  

    Studio Visits, Volume 18 Juried by Trevor Richardson /Edited by Steven Zevitas, OSP

2011     Exploring Experimental ArtISEA Exhibition Catalogue 

    Portland Tribune, ‘An Artists Paints her Garden’ Barbara Ashmun

    Studio Visits, Volume 13 Juried by Beth Venn /Edited by Steven Zevitas, OSP

2010     ‘Art of the Allison Collection’, Catalogue

    ‘Visual Journeys; Art of the 21st Century’ Nina Mihm / Mary Carol Nelson, Fresco P.

2009      ‘Extraordinary Measures’ – feature film w/ Harrison Ford

     ‘Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery; The First 50 Years 1959-2009’ Bowlan

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS and ARCHIVES-  Current

National Association ofWomen Artists- Archives at Rutgers University, Guggenheim Museum

Professional Women Photographers 

Society of Layerist’s in Multi Media

Women in Photography International - Archives at National Museum ofWomen Artists, DC

EDUCATION

1987     BARCH , Bachelors of Architecture, Minor, Art History,  University of Oregon, Eugene