Seen and Heard : Lessley Bender : Bath 12/31/2020

Humans throughout history have sought out bathing as a ritual act, hoping for cleansing, renewal, or forgiveness. I drew a bath on New Year’s Eve of 2020, hoping to forget the past year’s hardships, environmental destructions, and other myriad crises. In the time since, memory morphed that moment to take on new meaning and color. Can the body ever be renewed? How does the past still haunt us? How does ritual serve as a catalyst for an emerging and new identity? “Bath”, painted three years later, marks a “before” and an “after” by which to

view my own experience of a formative period.

I am a Bay Area-based artist working primarily in oil painting and often experimenting with printmaking, film photography, and fiber arts. My work explores human connection to the natural world through surrealist portrayals of flora, fauna, the cosmos, and the human figure. My background in ecology heavily influences my persistent love of painting the natural world, especially in the face of the dual and related crises of climate change and political challenges to bodily autonomy. “Bath 12/31/2020” asks the viewer to reflect on their own transformations (political, spiritual, or otherwise).

Find my work on IG @lessley.art