Gallery 224 presents,

Leslie Fedorchuk

Stop down by our windows in the month of August to see the artwork of ARTservancy Artist Resident,

Leslie Fedorchuk.

This exhibition features artwork inspired by

Kratzsch Preserve- Ozaukee Washington Land Trust.

Follow Leslie on Instagram!

Leslie Fedorchuk is an artist and educator who has been working in the genre of alternative processes and artists’ books for over thirty years. She earned her BFA at the University of Michigan and her MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She completed further graduate study in theology at St. Francis Seminary. Her written and visual work deals with issues of autobiography, memory, and domestic narratives. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally and has work in many private and public collections including the Milwaukee Public Library, The Tweed Museum of Art, Special Collections, UW Milwaukee, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Fedorchuk is a Professor of Humanities at MIAD, where she has developed and taught courses in the humanities, art history, writing, letterpress and book-arts. She has been a part of the MIAD community since the early nineties serving both on the faculty and as an academic dean.

Currently serving as the Director of Academic Service Learning for the college, Fedorchuk had a decade of experience in human services before coming to academia. She believes in the importance of creative people in every aspect of community life and encourages students to see themselves as change-makers both in and out of the studio.

I want to learn the songs.

That is what I have tried to do this past year at Kratzsch Conservancy.

I had originally planned to tell the story of this place through the eyes of my grandchildren.

My first two visits there were with them. Each had their own way of interacting with the land. Otis and Muriel take off running the trails. Muriel stops, Otis pauses a moment and then continues - while Muriel is now examining a particularly interesting little toad that she notices on the side of the road - almost no bigger than a thimble. She sees things that no one else does. Of course she is closest to the ground, and has the youngest, sharpest eyes. But it makes me wonder, what am I not seeing?

Then it was winter, and then there was COVID. My visits were different. I realized I needed to listen and pay attention differently.

Everywhere I look, although I can’t directly see it - everything is moving. Shifting, evolving, reacting — to the seasons, the creatures, the plants, to climate change, to viruses. In this body of work I wanted to grapple visually with the idea of movement, of evolution and of sustainability.

The land is a conglomeration of how it was formed, how it has changed over time and how it will continue to change. The land is interconnected and we are a part of that connection. It sings to us, it tells us things - if we can only pay attention. Mostly it seems, we can’t.

So I began taking as many photos as I could (using my phone) and making small videos. Of the things I would notice, of the sounds I heard. The land, the light, the river, the creatures, the plants - and then they began to talk to me.