Leslie Johnson is a Swedish American artist and educator living in Bärfendal Sweden. Born in the USA, her family moved to Canada in 1962 and she moved between USA, Canada and later Italy, until 1990 when she moved to Sweden.

“Things can be much more than they are.” I find things, or ideas occur to me, through encounters, both visceral and otherwise, of daily life. I interpret and elaborate—sometimes through a new context. I amplify found, but not finished things. I can only determine whether an idea is worthwhile after putting it through the wringer of media and material.

Sometimes ideas are quickly resolved, otherwise problems are worked out in a series; like in music where four notes become 16 combinations.

There is a peripatetic aspect in the process as themes have been revisited over time. Gaps are filled in hindsight. Meanings of the work change in relationship to the changing world, and new-ances are brought forth. Ideas or materials can ignite the working process. I do not discriminate. The working process sometimes is like a seance as I mediate between what was said and what might be said.

Everyday life can feel like an art practice.  While skiing I see the prints of the skis and start to make a pattern around a rock. While in the garden I am in an organic process—one thing leads to the next. I develop vague ideas into intentions while trying to define what is a weed.

The multiples are a response to the relentless invasion of consumerism.

In meeting the public, working with an exhibition at a particular site or situation; there is always some reinvention of the work.

Like actors pulled together for a new performance. Works which have one direction, sitting in the studio, are tweaked into more specific meetings as they come in dialogue with each other. My work or from the wunderkammer or work of other artists amplified through site, proximity, design.