Featured Artist Leslie Tucker

The photo-composite art of Leslie Tucker explores psychology and the thought process behind consumerism, while drawing the viewer in with intricate images. Visit the artist’s website to learn more.

 

 

Raised in the Boston area and the daughter of a psychiatrist, my early artistic influences were MAD Magazine’s subversiveness, television commercials, and my father’s mysterious profession.

 

 

What came out of that was my passion for satire, consumer culture and decoding human nature.

 

 

After I arrived in New York City, Warhol’s soup cans and soap pad boxes drew me into communication arts and consumer packaged goods design. Obsessed by psychological processes, I needed to know why people buy and their thoughts during the consumption process.

 

 

I was inspired by the idea that I could influence American’s thoughts and habits by graphically manipulating pictures of commodities.

 

 

Today, my visual arts practice examines the darker side of humanity and has evolved from exploring what we buy, to what we buy into.

 

 

My artistic goal, like a Siren’s song, is to lure my audience with intricate beauty and then upon closer inspection—WHAM!—to assault with disquieting content.

 

 

A typical day for me is spent sourcing thousands of images until I find just the right ones to place next to each other, as juxtaposition forms the foundation of my process.

 

 

Using software tools I color shift, erase backgrounds and compose. I’ve been printing my composites on Endura Metallic chromogenic paper as I find its iridescent finish and rich metallic appearance catches the eye and gives depth to my themes of illumination and human self-reflection.

 

 

I live in Manhattan’s East Village and rent studio space in Bushwick where I’ve been fortunate enough to attract a following. My audience ranges in age from millennials to baby boomers. So far my collectors include artists, photographers, an educator, an attorney, an art handler and a museum.

 

 

Recently, a young twenty-something asked me, “How do you come up with your themes?” “It all begins with anger,” I replied.

 

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