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Guest Artist – Mana Lesman
August 2 @ 5:00 pm - September 27 @ 2:00 pm
Mana Lesman
Guest Artist
OPENING NIGHT AND RECEPTION, FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2024 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Show Dates: Through September 2021
Mana Lesman, featured artist at Sandstone Gallery, 2913 2nd Ave. N., Billings, for the August 2nd Art Walk will be showing a collection of oil paintings ranging from decorative whimsy to serious statements about humanity. Ms. Lesman paints with the belief that art is communication as well as decor and entertainment. Her Graphic Surrealist oils speak to both those purposes. Works will be on display thru August and September.
Graphic Surrealism, a definition by artist and ‘ism creator, Mana Lesman
Written October 14, 2006
Combining abstract symbolism with recognizable images, Mana Lesman has drawn much of her inspiration from original forms of our alphabet, hieroglyphics and other symbols of ancient cultures. She calls her work “graphic surrealism.” Of particular interest are pieces featuring the periodic table of elements; the alphabet; myriad architectural elements: especially those of decoration or “gingerbread” on buildings both ancient and modern; myths; early Celtic and northern European decorative designs including knot patterns and key patterns; jewelry, carpet, ceramics and fabric decoration. It appears to me, says Lesman, that at some point in time, all of these decorative images carried significant messages and were probably precursors to signs, symbols and ultimately writing. We have long since forgotten the specific messages they conveyed, but such ‘decorations’ (such as the egg and dart borders on room interiors, Ukrainian Easter egg decorations, the paisley design on fabrics) still strike a deep chord in us and satisfy some deep need to find meaning and comfort in our universe.
The seeds of graphic surrealism came when I was experimenting with tempera,” says the Billings native who returned to Montana in 1985. “I was toying with abstract shapes I could twist and contort.”
Part of Lesman’s inspiration was the graffiti art she saw in Chicago, “But I just don’t paint on trains or school yards,” she says. “I also did not wish to copy the young graffiti artists of the mid ‘80s but chose to go in my own direction.”
Starting with old symbols and pictograms, seeing these as “ancient graffiti” the artist first dubbed her work, “heiro-graffiti.”
“It came together in bits and pieces,” she says. “I read National Geographic a lot while my father was ill, and began reading about Middle Eastern cultures and archeology. There are a lot of decorative motifs in architecture and jewelry, many of which have meaning. I think they speak to something elemental in us—some go back 30,000 years to caves in Europe and Palestine.
Lesman does a lot of reading and study of ancient myth and history to inspire the development of images for her paintings. From North American Native American symbols to East Indian Chakras, no early society is without its “decorative” symbols and juxtaposed to each other, they have lessons to teach us about the universal qualities of mankind, about the ebb and flow of cultures, and the specific interpretations of “that which is beautiful” which touches us all.
No two of Lesman’s paintings are the same, and most are quite dissimilar. Each is a message of beauty and, according to Lesman, “a question” of why the specific images were chosen and “what” the message was meant to convey.
Statement by the Artist,
Mana Lesman
18 Maier Ln.
Billings, Mt. 5910
(406)-252-5780
E-mail: pintoramt@gmail.com
Her work may be viewed on her website: manalesman.com