Art & Life with Leisa Rich

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leisa Rich.

Leisa, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Time spent in the hospital as a child led to my early connection to fibers. As a baby, I had a favored blanket; the only way I could fall asleep was by working my fingers along the satin trim edging from one end to the other. During ages 2-4 while I was in and out of the hospital for medical complications and deafness, my mother made sewn and knit clothes for my Barbie and Ken, which she would surprise me with. One particular dress, made of a fiery red satin and white lace, enticed a growing tactile infatuation with the feel of things. Finger painting in the hospital art room — large scuttling clouds and blowing treetops seen through the big picture window — was my solace as I reveled in the squishy paint between my fingers. Touch was there when humans were not. Saturdays were spent with Dad at his electrical shop from age 5 on. Wires, bolts and bits of metal became diamond tiaras and bracelets with which to adorn myself as I played. I visited the other shops in the construction company enclave where my Dad’s business was housed, and plumbers, pipe fitters and glaziers became my source for supplies to make tables and sculptures, and the men who owned them my lunch buddies at the local diner. An electrical spool cable table and stools my Dad set up inside an enclosure of weeping willow branches in our home back yard became the perfect setting to host tea parties for my dolls and teddy bears, with no other sound but the rustling whish the leaves made in light wind as I played alone for hours. A trip to Disneyland in California at age 5 — my very first real vacation after all of my childhood illnesses, and the ride, “It’s A Small World” — made a huge impact on me and most certainly inspired the fantastical worlds I now create. At age 15, while attending Interlochen Arts Academy private boarding school in Michigan for piano and dance I developed thyroid complications from Mononucleosis, which caused weight gain and resulted in getting kicked out of the dance department until I lost some of the weight. A friend suggested I take weaving to temporarily replace dance. I fell in love with fibers and immediately switched my major to art.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I work in ways that shares the experience of my individual kind of artistic exploration with viewers by inviting them to become sensorial co-creators with me: through textural surprises in wall hung works and sculptures that draw them in for a closer look, to panels that can actually be moved and rearranged by them, in environments they can walk through, through cell phone ‘sound symphonies’ that encourage social interconnectivity, all in an effort to invite them into a fantasy world that suspends reality for a time.

I do not limit myself to one material or method but rather, I am highly experimental, using the “right” thing to accomplish the concept. That might mean fabric and free motion machine embroidery — a method of “painting” using a sewing machine and thread — or 3D printing, or printing images on fabric using solar dyes, or crocheting huge forms from a low-melt polyester I blast with a heat gun, or any number of ways to transform one thing into another. I make environments, wall-hung works, sculptures, installations, cell phone stations to play sound in, and more.

There were other earlier inspirations that still influence the way I work, today; my parents taught me to be resourceful and instilled in me a need to do-it-myself, use everything up, and figure it out if there wasn’t information readily available. When my Mom taught me to sew at age 11, I can remember her throwing down the garment we were working on and saying, “You’ll NEVER be a sewer!” But, I proved her wrong, by finishing the coat, albeit by attaching stuffed tubes onto it, creating my first, original, art-to-wear piece, much to her dismay. She also showed me how to drop the feed dogs and put the darning foot on the sewing machine to learn how to fix socks; I immediately figured out I could “draw” this way, and my passion using stitch to create art was born. I am happy to be labeled “fiber artist” for it is those hand work materials and methods that hark back to the beginning of human survival, that clothed us, protected us from wind and rain, and birthed valuable arts of weaving, knitting, basketry, embroidery, painting on cloth, and more ways of adorning and embellishing, increasing in creativity and becoming more and more sophisticated with time and practice.

I usually work in silence, for I am legally deaf. I find that listening to podcasts or music distracts me, but occasionally I do put something interesting on. I NEVER have creative block but suffer from the opposite, too many ideas that crowd my head and demand that I bring them to fruition. I often lament that I wish I had assistants, others’ “bored” time, or could clone myself. Ideas come to me either fully realized, or they evolve by my freeing up myself to serendipity, choosing the path of making or the materials as the piece evolves. I used to do politically and socially motivated work about women, children, and other things of concern, but as there seems to be more and more pain and worry in day-to-day politics/society/personal challenges inherent to living today, I seek to escape and provide an escape outlet for my “viewer”.

What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
I try to balance the introvert and extrovert within. I am not lonely; I prefer to be in my studio alone, working. When I feel the need to be social, I go to art openings if there is a really cool show on, or I am available to go to friends’ openings. My advice is to do what feels the best for each individual, realizing that there are benefits and drawbacks to over-attending arts activities, or not going enough. It is really best to know yourself and what is the right balance.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Website: www.monaleisa.com
In Atlanta: Signature Gallery; Thomas Deans Fine Art
Studio: The Goat Farm W214
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Leisa-Rich-Visual-Artist-and-Art-Educator-276803820724/
Twitter: richmadeart
Animal Alphabet Traveling Twisters book website: http://www.animalalphabettravelingtwisters.com
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/ehuQGr
https://www.saatchiart.com/leisar

In Her Hands

Contact Info:

• Address: The Goat Farm
  Studio W214 1200 Foster St. SW
  Atlanta, Georgia 30342 *By appointment only
• Website: www.monaleisa.com
• Phone: 469-682-5276
• Email: monaleisa@bellsouth.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monaleisa2
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Leisa-Rich-Visual-Artist-and-Art-Educator
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/richmade
• Other: https://www.saatchiart.com/leisar

Image Credit:
Leisa Rich, Michael West, Brian Rucks,  Isadora Pennington.

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