Bio
Raised in Anchorage, Alaska Leanne received a B.F.A. in
Minneapolis, Minnesota at the University of Minnesota in 1997. In 2002
she received her M.F.A. at Louisiana State University. Currently Leanne
is a Full-time Instructor and Department Chair of Art, Music, Theatre,
Film and Video Games Studies (ETEC) at the Baton Rouge Community
College. Leanne has exhibited all over the U.S. as well as being an
artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation and Watershed. She is
the Emerging Artist 2007 for NCECA, (National Council on Education for
the Ceramics Arts) and has upcoming show at the Baton Rouge Gallery in
March. She is engaged to be married to Harold Cambric , a Texan and a
painter, in April.
Appetite’s Syntax Artist Statement
Leanne McClurg
“The second-hardest thing I have to do is not be
longing’s slave” Sarah Manguso wrote that in a poem
entitled “Hell”. I twirl the last two words around in my
brain. “Longing’s slave” They seem to fit too well,
register in my body as some part of my identity. That’s the
second-hardest thing I have to do too.
Two years ago I began to ask questions about how we make decisions.
What is instinct? What is intuition? What is learned behavior? How do
we survive? These questions have led me to investigate my choices and
to see that many of my turns are guided by one main device:
Appetite. I long for situations, things, feelings. It is within
this hunger for something “other than” that motivates many
of the decisions I’ve made. It is within that struggle of
accepting things as they are that I begin to understand my own humanity
and find connection again with an animal’s self sufficiency and
instinct.
What do you long for? What are your desires? How strong is your appetite? Can we share experiences?
I have been undressing the vocabulary of appetite. I see a series of
images that trigger desire for the other, they become the foundation of
my drawings. The vessels I make are the vehicle for appetite. They can
deliver satisfaction to the body and at the same time they can be
the object of desire.
I begin with my body, my perception, it is the genesis for all that I
make. My impetus for making is to convey a certain
truth about my life experiences. I am interested in the
connection between the instinct of consumption and the repercussions of
fulfilling that desire on the body.
As an artist I want to make my human experience sharable. My work
represents an extension of my physical being. When someone uses a
cup I made I want them to think of my lip kissing theirs as they drink.
I draw inspiration from how my full body interacts with other objects,
other bodies.
Decision making is the impetus for my current body
of work. I began by looking at the distinctions between internal
forces like instinct and intuition and how that influences our external
body.
Instinct is an automatic response our body makes for longevity.
Procreation and protection are the clearest examples of instinct and
behaviors that we have most in common with animals. I use animals as a connection to address instinctual issues but also feelings of comfort and the familiar.
Tattoos are a type of marker of the past or set of instructions as to
how to live life. I etch the drawings into my pots as a tattoo artist
etches permanently into the skin. Both are a record and a reminder.
The presence of my fingers pinching the work is proof of my body as
maker. Every breath, like every fingerprint in clay, is a record of my
existence that I want to communicate.
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