034 http://www.AmericanArtCollector.com
Unveiling
Unveiling spotlights a recently completed portrait, fi gurative
work or museum opening from some of our best and most
active members of the Portrait Society of America. This month
Stephanie Vivirito, Portrait Society’s Program Coordinator,
interviewed Leslie Adams about her recent ArtPrize Eight
work at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.F
rom a very young age, artist Leslie
Adams was encouraged to dream. Her
artwork now inspires us to do the same.
As a child, the Toledo Museum of Art
was Adams’ playground. It was where
she spent countless hours viewing the
museum’s collection and where she started
her formal education. The museum sparked
Adams’ dream to be an artist, and the
memories she made there a ect her work
and life today.
However, her time at the Toledo Museum
of Art was only one component of Adams’
childhood that compelled her to follow
her dream to be an artist. Learning cursive
in school in the 1970s taught Adams the
value of writing by hand and the beauty of
a line. As a little girl, she was determinedto document her dreams
with perfect penmanship
on paper because to her,
it made dreams real.
Adams believes, “the very
act of recording a dream,
handwritten on paper or
chalkboard, opens the
door to possibility.”
It is these feelings
of possibility and encouragement that
Adams conveys with her recent artwork,
Handwritten Dreams. This interactive,
large-scale triptych and installation was
on display at the annual international
art competition, ArtPrize Eight, held
September 21 to October 9, 2016, at the
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in
Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Adams says, “Handwritten Dreams is an
extremely personal statement yet a work
that celebrates the hopes, aspirations and
dreams that we, as children and adults,universally share. The drawing on the left
depicts a child reaching to write her list of
hopes and dreams on the chalkboard. In the
center, an empty 1970s classroom provides
evidence of the day’s lessons in cursive,
and then on the right, at present, the list
lives and grows. The story continues in
front of the work where seven vintage
school desks provide the space and time for
ArtPrize visitors—children and adults—to
pause, refl ect and write their own dreams
on paper. Each visitor then pins their hopes
to the ever-growing ‘wall of dreams.’”
Adams is using her dream come true to
make her voice heard, to encourage us to
be curious, and to urge us to dream.121
Handwritten
Dreams, large-
scale triptych
and installation2
Self Portrait at
Eight, charcoal
and white chalk
on paper, 28 x 22"The 19th annual The Art of the Portrait conference
will be held April 20-23, 2017, in Atlanta.
http://www.portraitsociety.orgLeslie Adams: A Little Girl’s
Dreams Come True BY STEPHANIE VIVIRITO