The artists are friends, Harimandir Khalsa & Leslie Ward.
Their statements follow--
Local artist Harimandir Khalsa (pronounced har-e-mun-der call-sa) has made her home in north-central Florida for over 30 years. She has been painting murals, both interior and exterior, residential and commercial, for much of that time. Her best known local murals are the endangered species HERE TODAY mural located on theTown Tire building at NW 8th ave and 6th street and A PICTORIAL of HAWTHORNE painted on the south facing wall of M & S Bank in Hawthorne. In addition to murals Khalsa also creates paintings on canvas.
These most recent paintings draw inspiration from ancient circular designs known as mandalas. Mandalas have been used for centuries as mystical focal points that illustrate the universe and serve as portals into deeper levels of awareness. These paintings are expressions of some of Khalsa's own urges toward emotional and spiritual evolution joined with a desire to inspire the viewer to explore their own internal universes. Her themes include man and nature, time and space, healing and being. Her subjects are both representational and dream-like. The meticulous, formally constructed paintings begin with carefully prepared surfaces on linen stretched over custom made stretchers. Her fool the eye technique carries over to the framing.
For the past many years Khalsa's personal artistic goals have included drawing attention to the beauty and mystery of our natural world, to the multi-dimensional layering of time, and to the inner process of becoming ever more present. Her work draws the viewer into a clear, deep and mysterious world of the subtle and the sublime while blurring the line between the dream and the dreamer.
Harimandir Khalsa, September 18, 2011
Leslie Ward - Glass Artist
Leslie showed interest in the arts at an early age. At the age of five, Her mother responded by enrolling her in art classes at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, as well as giving her piano lessons. She vacillated between music and art for many years. For several decades, Leslie’s aesthetic feeling found expression in music. She played piano and guitar while working in New York City’s music industry. Eventually, her love of color and sense of design drew her back to the visual arts. In 1985, she took a class in stained glass and was mesmerized by the endless array of color and light. She has been working with the medium ever since.
Leslie employed traditional stained glass methods for several years, then started experimenting with mosaics. Her current technique incorporates a combination of these two methods, creating a unique style of glass artwork. She loves using color, and often uses vibrant colored mirror and irridized glass in her work. Tumbled glass, which has a muted look similar to “beach glass”, is often used as a background in which the bright colors can “pop”.
Leslie now incorporates pieces of functional art into her collection. She is currently creating pieces including console tables, wine racks, lazy susans and serving trays. The lazy susans and trays are espcecially interesting as they can be enjoyed in two ways: either hung on the wall as art or on the table as functioning pieces.
She loves working with individual clients on custom pieces. She collaborates closely with her husband Ray, who assists in design and builds the original pieces for her to work on. They work together in their country home studio in Interlachen, Florida.
