cj lester artist bio

For as long as I can remember, I have rearranged and manipulated found objects. I began
studying art in 1977, and quit to “do something more lucrative”. I returned to studying art in
1990 after leaving the corporate world in search of a more meaningful way of life. After a
brief hiatus to live in Sweden, I returned again to studying art. In 1999, I completed my B.F.A.
in sculpture.

My recent work includes paintings, sculptures and installations depicting women’s
curves, histories and thoughts via subliminal text and multiple layers
of conceptually connected materials and colors. My feminine abstract paintings
revolve around saturated colors, a broad palette of values and text applied
using additive and subtractive processes to visually portray depth and volume.
As viewers read the layers of oiled printed text in my sculptures
and installations, they voyeuristically engage in the otherwise private lives of the
women embodied in my art. In addition, the ocean has always been a place of
personal solace, tranquility, reflection and regeneration. I find solitude by
painting simple compositions that center around water.

As long as water soothes my soul, as long as women enrich my spirit,
I will honor them in my art.