Biography

Leslie Rowland

Artist, Designer, Gallery Owner, Curator

I’ve been creating compulsively since she was a small child. My mother used to throw her hands up in futility when I chose my own palettes for paint-by-number projects, turning them into works of impressionism. My father would come home to find that I had adorned the driveway and sidewalk with colored chalk. When they took away the chalk, I fell back on much more permanent bark. The world was my canvas. Becoming an artist was not a conscious decision, but rather a compulsory happening; art is what I think about while awake and what I dream about while asleep. 

 Much of my work focuses on ecological concepts condensing relatively complex scientific scenarios into single images. These works include butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and other pollinators puzzled together with imagery of flowers from which they derive nectar and that they pollinate. Another ecological concept is presented in a series which depicts animals and how they benefit the ecosystems and humans. A new series which represents ecological connection, presents a focal species, like a flower or bird, in a radiating mandala pattern incorporating species with which it interacts.

 My work also focuses on technology. Our lives rely so much on technology and communicating with each other electronically. This is explored in paintings with positive messages in binary code such as "you are beautiful," “I love you,” “love lives here” and "Fuck it; let's dance."  Another technological series concentrates on music and presents sound waves from songs we can all relate to. I’ve painted sound waves based on Blondie, The Beatles, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Miles Davis, Lil Wayne, Fats Domino, The Stones, John Lennon and even monks chanting "OM."

 I believe that art is a powerful form of communication, sometimes visceral and sometimes direct. The purpose of my work is to make the viewer feel connected, joyful, loved and enthused. Art has the potential to heal, enrich and enlighten. It’s my greatest ambition to create art that reaches you.

 Throughout my career, I’ve had many solo shows and group exhibitions at home in the states and abroad. I’ve owned galleries in Las Vegas, NV and Asheville, including Gallery COR, located in Downtown Asheville’s gallery district. L Rowland Fine Contemporary Art, my personal gallery, located in Asheville’s River Arts District, was destroyed by the flood waters of Hurricane Helene. In response, I opened Joan Awake, a boutique gallery located on high ground in Asheville’s River Arts District, where I show my own paintings and represent a powerful group of women artists who were impacted by Hurricane Helene.

 In addition to an art-filled life, I have a graduate degree in environmental science. My husband Wade and I moved to the vibrant arts community of Asheville, NC 12 years ago and now live in a 100-year-old cabin in the town of Bat Cave, which is located on the Rocky Broad River in the Hickory Nut Gorge. We love traveling the world to experience different cultures and spending time with our four rescued cats and a 90-pound,11-year-old rescued lab named Lou. Wade and I are also in a musical trio called Mutha’ Nature, Wade plays guitar and harmonica and sings, our good friend Ernie Marquez plays base and sings, I’m the lead vocalis and play congas.