Spotlight Artist

Leslie Shellow

Northeast
Artist profile photo
Featured in New American Paintings

Artist Statement

My interest in microscopic imagery began as a result of spending many hours in nature closely observing my surroundings. As I walked through the woods or swam in the ocean, I began to notice that everything I saw was made up of repeated smaller elements. I began to look at objects under a microscope noticing repeated patterns and visual rhythms. Mold, lichen, corral, cells, viruses, and bacteria and their processes of growth, decay and regeneration became the focus of my artwork.

Each possesses a miraculous capacity for survival and reproduction, even under the harshest conditions. Each contains its own blueprint and alters its environment according to a predetermined set of rules. No matter what we do to try to control these organisms, we ultimately have no power over how they act.

I think of these drawings as self-contained organisms. They float in their surroundings, some of them benign, others destructive. They interact with each other, sometimes in concert and sometimes in discord. Repetitive mark making imitates the process of growth; while cutting and eliminating parts of the drawing replicates the process of decay and decomposition.

Artist's Additional works

Works shared by the artist outside of their featured New American Paintings selections

Featured artwork
Featured artwork

Discover more artists from the Northeast

THE MAGAZINE

Explore our magazine to discover exceptional artists

Open magazine with text, modern illustrations, and a list of artists on a pink background.
View issues

Call for Artists

Submit your work for consideration

New American Paintings is a juried exhibition-in-print and digital, presenting the work of 40 emerging artists in each issue.

View competitions

Your gateway to new art

Discover tomorrow's art stars, today

Two books on a wooden table with a modern decorative sculpture in the background.

PRINT + EARLY ACCESS DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$179/YEAR

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$99/YEAR OR $10/MONTH

Each issue of New American Paintings features forty artists selected through our juried competitions—presented in a beautifully curated, full-color publication. Subscribers receive six issues per year, plus exclusive online access to current and past editions. Are you a collector? Consider our premium subscription and receive our museum-quality printed publication + access to each new digital issue two weeks before its general release.