Sensory Study: Lesley Silvia

(Image by Lesley Silvia)

LOCATION: Barnie’s Coffee Kitchen
Park Avenue, Winter Park, FL
TIME: 12:02 PM
TEMPERATURE: 72 degrees
CONDITIONS: Rainy

“…ten prosthetic limbs, sweat, and the scent of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume.”

Lesley Silvia was transporting limbs in her car. Parts of a sculpture project. Add some rowing garb, perfume, a sticky-hot afternoon, and she receives the lasting impressions of a potent smell-combo. “I love The Fox-Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child, but, unfortunately, now can’t even wear it,” says Silvia.  Hmmmm…perfume trade perchance? White tea, cherry blossom, wisteria, star jasmine, and teak. Sounds luscious.

But this study is not about smell. Touch is the sense that speaks loudest to Lesley’s art practice.

” Putting time and care  into my work is part of my DNA. The feel of the paper is important.  If I don’t like the texture, I won’t use it. Aside from paper, I want to touch just about everything,” says Silvia. She confesses that she accidentally bumped—or rather, very, very gently grazed—her head on the Jon Kuhn and Paul J. Stankard  glass sculpture at OMA. She just wanted to get close to it.

Work tools tie solidly into our sense of touch; and Lesley’s main tool, a utility knife, holds a similar feel to a pencil in her hand. And what about scissors? “The old guys in Switzerland used sheep shears for their paper cuttings. I sometimes use scissors, but find that I need various lengths and sizes—similar to a golfer with her clubs,” she smiles.

Find out more about Lesley’s work here and here.

This week, slice up a few sheets of paper. Experiment with them in your Destination Journal.