hi there,
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about me
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Hello hello! Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, I’ve bounced around since graduating from the University of Virginia in 2022. Long story short: Nashville and Louisville were home for a while before I moved to Charlotte in September of 2025. I currently work as a Project Manager for Atelier 4, where I coordinate fine art logistics and shipping.
At UVA, I earned my BFA, majoring in Art History and minoring in Philosophy. I capped off my academic studies with a DMP Art History Thesis titled “Reconciling Salvador Dali’s Uneasy Situation within the Canon of Modern Art”. My thesis explored how the Dali became the modern blueprint for the artist as a celebrity through the popularization and vulgarization of so called “high art” for the masses; a blueprint which would later be expounded upon by the likes of more recent artists like Andy Warhol, Damien Hurst, and Yayoi Kusama.
Outside of my painting practice, I’ve been learning how to sew over the past two years, first as a means to be able to make my own Halloween costumed, now as a means to be able to wear clothes not made of polyester.
Art has always been a central part of my life — I remember arguing with my parents at the age of five because I didn’t want to put my sketchbook down at the dinner table. My late grandmother was an artist and sign painter, and I grew up surrounded by her artwork, which was laden with the existential and surrealist influences which would later find themselves at the center of my work. I’ve never received a formal training in art, besides arguing with my “Intro to Drawing” professor in undergrad for a semester because she was infuriated with how I held my pencil (which is admittedly and objectively wrong).
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I specialize in oil painting, and I’m deeply inspired and influenced by the philosophy and visual language of the Surrealist movement. My art is motivated by a curiosity for the psyche and how we interact with our perceptions of ourselves and our emotions. Recently, I’ve been exploring the idea of “little moments of wonder”, which seek to blend bold colors with whimsical subjects, toeing the line between fantasy and realism using nostalgic subjects that seem familiar yet foreign.
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My first and most prominent influence was sign painter, artist, and my late grandmother Diane Perl. I grew up surrounded by her work and inspired by the dual playfulness and darkness of her style, and it was in attempting to imitate her work that I developed my passion and style. I admire the work and philosophy of the Surrealist movement of the 20th century, and particularly the work of Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, and Giorgio de Chirico. My favorite painting is Dali’s Hallucinogenic Toreador (1968 - 1970 ), although my spark into Surrealism was Magritte’s La Condition Humaine ( 1933).The psychological nature of the Surrealist’s work has a particular poignancy in today’s day and age, and I like the idea of updating their thought process and bringing it to terms with our globalized world.
@lesliewadeart
