One-time fitness pro turns her training to paint and canvas
Arizona Republic, September 1, 2001 by John Carlos Villani
Whap! Bang! Splat!
No, It's not the Caped Crusader who's featured in the Kerr Cultural Center's latest visual arts show. It's one-time personal trainer Lezli Goodwin, a Scottsdale artist who uses cartoon language as titles for her new series of acrylic paintings.
Goodwin, who's signature style has combined rich hues and glossy surfaces with complex, geometric abstractions, is shifting gears for this show. Her titles used to be straightforward expressions, such as Fractured Field and Blue Squares V.
But now that Goodwin's warmed up to what she refers to as a desire to express "kinetic movement through a loose image," she's dropped her titles into the single-word category. Hence, the name of this latest show, "Deconstructed," which opens Friday at the Kerr.
Although her work is not represented at Valley art galleries, Goodwin manages to sell enough art to the professional design trade to support her transition into full-time painting.
Her web site -- www.lezligoodwin.com -- presents her paintings in a simple, straightforward way. Each piece is tightly cropped against a black background with title, price and date of creation.
"I find that men like my paintings a lot," she says. "I don't know what that means, or even why that is, but the vast majority of my buyers are professional males in their 30's and 40's.
"There's not a whole lot in these paintings someone can disagree with. But they don't have overt feminine references, and in gallery settings, it's always the men that stop and stare at them."
Though she took some painting classes during her undergraduate years, she's primarily a self-taught artist and has been at it full time since early 1999.
One of the strongest qualities of Goodwin's art is the careful way she builds luminosity and depth in her surfaces. It's an effect she achieves by applying dozens of layer of acrylic paints with a hake brush.
"The hake brush is about the cheapest brush sold in art supply stores," she says. "But once you learn how to use it right, it's great for getting dynamic effects with a glossy finish.
"The only drawback to using the hake brush is that it's made of goat hair, which tends to separate from the brush and ends up imbedded in your paintings."
Like hundreds of Valley artists, Goodwin possesses strong talents yet lacks a suitable gallery. It's through non-profits as the Kerr, Mesa Contemporary Arts and Shemer Arts Center that these artists reach their audience, biding time until their marketing efforts fall into place.
Until then, would-be collectors can count on finding bargains at these non-profit exhibition sites.
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