{"id":37502,"date":"2017-12-29T12:36:38","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T18:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=37502"},"modified":"2025-11-10T21:38:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T04:38:33","slug":"the-joyful-fruit-of-leslie-duke-at-meyer-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/the-joyful-fruit-of-leslie-duke-at-meyer-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joyful Fruit of Leslie Duke at Meyer Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cMorning\u2019s Table,\u201d 28\u2033 x 28\u2033 oil<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Home-decor magazines, with their adoption of the fruit still life as a staple of \u201ckitchen art,\u201d may have dulled our appreciation for the dynamic, emotional, and thrilling aspects of produce-based subjects, but Springville artist Leslie Duke, with her intricate mark-making and lively compositions, exemplifies the potential of fruit to become compelling works of art. Her still lifes are incredibly energetic with thick, powerful palette-knife strokes and interesting streak marks animating her canvases. Her paintings, which will be on display at Meyer Gallery along with Brian Astel Dec. 29- Jan. 11, are abstract but recognizable, reinventing familiar objects as poetic compositions filled with movement and light.<\/h4>\n

Duke studied illustration at Brigham Young University, where she initially planned on studying law. \u201cGoing into college, I was planning on becoming a lawyer,\u201d she explains. \u201cI thought \u2018I\u2019m a strong, independent woman who likes to argue!\u2019 Studying illustration would just be something I did for fun in my undergraduate work, then I would go to law school.\u201d But her attention was turned by the university\u2019s illustration program, which she says \u201cfocuses on the basics of learning how to draw really well,\u201d and after completing her BFA, Duke decided to strike out as an illustrator.<\/h4>\n

After working as a dry media illustrator for several years, Duke felt drawn to pursue her own projects. \u201cI just got burnt out bringing other people\u2019s\u2019 visions alive,\u201d she says. \u201cAbove all, I just missed painting. Painting\u2019s what interests me.\u201d She described the transition as a slow one, gradually replacing time spent on commissioned work with her own compositions. Though she was no longer working as an illustrator, her work never abandoned representation. Duke always uses real fruit in staging her compositions, relying on the pre-painting process to map out color, texture, and shape before placing any paint. \u201cMost of my paintings are pretty well thought through by the time I start painting,\u201d she says.<\/h4>\n

In a work like \u201cMorning\u2019s Table,\u201d a recognizable grapefruit half, berries, and a green apple pop against a tangled mass of green foliage. The white, textured background distinguishes wall from tablecloth with delicate color differences, the tablecloth appearing to float with its abundance rather than sit solidly on a table. She dubs her paintings \u201cdeconstructed realism,\u201d a term derived from Derrida\u2019s semiotic theory, questioning our most basic understandings of thinghood \u2014 rather than having one commonly understood meaning, Derrida acknowledged that a single object could have many diverse meanings depending on context or personal experience. This is a principle Duke applies to her paintings, often having a specific feeling she hopes to communicate, without imposing that specific interpretation on the viewer. \u201cI think it\u2019s interesting when people try to assign specific meanings or psychoanalyze my work. It doesn\u2019t annoy me, but often I honestly hadn\u2019t really thought about what they suggest,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/h4>\n

Working with still lifes, Duke is especially aware of the deep symbolism often associated with the genre from a long tradition beginning in the Northern Renaissance. Often these works are interpreted as vanitas <\/em>images, reminders of the fleeting nature of life and the inescapable blackness of death. Duke does not, however, intentionally insert symbolism as a main part of her artwork. \u201cI do not really insert objects steeped in symbolism,\u201d she explains. \u201cPainting is a meditative process for me. It is extremely relaxing and rejuvenating. Even if I do not have direct symbolism in my work, I think the peace and hope I feel when I paint can be communicated by my composition and color choices.\u201d<\/h4>\n

The most prevalent theme Duke considered while preparing for her current show at Meyer Gallery was new beginnings. Her first child was born earlier this year, causing her to reflect on birth. \u201cI spent most of this year pregnant and then caring for my new baby,\u201d she says. These thoughts are evident in the titles of her paintings, \u201cFirst Fruits,\u201d \u201cBlossoming,\u201d \u201cGolden Hour<\/em>,\u201d \u201cThe Awakening,\u201d<\/em> and \u201cTreasures.\u201d <\/em>\u201cThe best word to describe this collection of my work would be hopeful,\u201d Duke says. \u201cI feel like the bright color palettes really communicate that.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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\u201cGolden Hour,\u201d 58\u2033 x 54\u2033<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
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\u201cFirst Fruits,\u201d 12\u2033 x 26\u2033<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
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\u201cBlossoming,\u201d 50\u2033 x 30\u2033<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Duke\u2019s paintings are interesting explorations of texture, \u201cthingness\u201d, and reinventing the genre of still-life painting. Though not openly symbolic, her art certainly evokes emotions of hope, curiosity, and joyfulness in their bright colors and energetic mark-making. Like other deconstructivist artists before her, Duke is breaking boundaries between representation and reality, exploring the line between the creation of a new object or a documentation of a different object that exists in the three-dimensional world.<\/h4>\n

Leslie Duke & Brian Astle, Meyer Gallery<\/a>, Park City, Dec. 29 \u2013 Jan. 11. Artist reception Dec. 29, 6-9 pm.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n

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\u201cMorning\u2019s Table,\u201d 28\u2033 x 28\u2033 oil Home-decor magazines, with their adoption of the fruit still life as a staple of \u201ckitchen art,\u201d may have dulled our appreciation for the dynamic, emotional, and thrilling aspects of produce-based subjects, but Springville artist Leslie Duke, with her intricate mark-making and lively […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1567,"featured_media":37503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[3163,308],"class_list":["post-37502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-leslie-duke","tag-meyer-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/leslieduke_morning-797x800.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 13:42:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1567"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98425,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37502\/revisions\/98425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}