Arts & Literature

WAM! The Wesleyan Artist Market Goes Virtual in 2021- Ali Leja Spotlight

Published

4 years ago

April 18, 2021

Patrizia Winsper

Whimsical artist Ali Leja paints to bring smiles to all ages. (Photos courtesy of Ali Leja.)

Giving precedence to health and safety, the Wesleyan Artist Market is adhering to COVID-19 protocols.

But instead of having to cancel like last year when the pandemic took the world by surprise, this year they’ve had the marvelous idea of using technology to allow a contactless experience.

In the season’s spirit of renewal and rebirth, I present to you the Wesleyan Artist Market, reimagined.

We won’t be deprived of the fine arts, wares and jewelry we’ve all come to look forward to each spring, and 82 professional artists will be able to share their works while bolstering Wesleyan’s admirable art program. Win! Win! Win!

Mark your calendars for April 22 – 29. The show is being hosted by Shopify and will go live to the public at 4pm on the 22nd. Go to wesleyan-artist-market-2021.myshopify.com and enjoy the show!

Ali Leja

Change is good

Self-taught artist Ali Leja was a guidance counsellor for 20 years before trading in her 600-student case load for paintbrushes. “I told my husband one day I wanted to learn how to paint,” Leja recounted. After having seen her cycle through expensive knitting, lamp-making and jewelry-making phases, he was leery.

Yet Leja started painting and 10 years later, she hasn’t stopped. It finally felt like she was doing what she was meant to do. “I painted for three years while working as a counsellor. The principal allowed me to sell the artwork to parents who came to my office,” Leja chuckled.

WAM

The Wesleyan Artist Market (WAM) was Leja’s first art show and remains a favorite. In the midst of resolving estate issues and grieving the loss of her parents, she couldn’t imagine participating this year if not for Gina Solomon of the WAM Team, who offered to upload Leja’s art. “It was the worst time of my life. It’s very special to have that kind of relationship,” Leja said.

A Penny For Your Thoughts by Ali Leja, 48”x 36”.

Paint with personality

Leja’s subjects are varied: beach ladies in giant hats, animals, insects, perfume bottles, florals, fruit, rain boots, cocktails and ice-cream cones. “I get bored easily. You won’t know me for one subject, you’ll know me for my style,” she said.

“I like to layer and acrylics dry fast. By the time you’re done with the painting, it’s dry,” Leja explained. “Oils can take weeks to dry. Acrylics fit my personality better. I also use charcoal, inks and pastels to enhance them.”

Varnish seals the charcoal and pastels. “I spray it so it doesn’t rub off. I’d rather not use anything, for the sake of the environment, but it does bring out a richness in the colors and gives a bit of a shine,” Leja said.

Meet me at the Beach by Ali Leja, 36”x 36”

Large, chunky brush strokes and fun colors define her work. “I’d say my style is modern and happy. I use big brushes and a lot of canvas with quick movement. I like to paint bigger; my strokes are large. The bigger I paint, the more I enjoy it,” Leja added. “My favorite size is 30” x 30” — it’s good for homes and easy for galleries to carry. I’ve painted pieces from 20” x 20” to 60” x 60”.”

Faceless portraits

Leja paints all kinds of animals and people. “It comes naturally, and I enjoy it,” she said. What’s unique about Leja’s people is they don’t have faces. She believes the absence of specific features makes the figures relatable to a broader audience.

“I use shading. You can see where features would go because of the shading and skin tones, but I don’t do the features of a face,” Leja explained. Her animals and pets, however, do have faces. “I love to bring animals to life.

Art therapy

A bright basement studio is Leja’s haven. “I paint happy because that’s how I want to feel,” she said. “There’s a lot more meaning than just a cute or pretty canvas. When I’m in my studio, I don’t have any problems. It’s a magical outlet.”

Leja confided that art saved her soul and helped her stay connected. “I love to make people’s homes pretty, but it’s also something I do to cope.”

Painting big strokes is a release of emotions for her. “It’s how I survive hard times — especially the past two years. My mom was on life support,” Leja shared. “Painting got me through it.”

An artist’s work is never done

Artists don’t just paint. “I spend 30 to 40% of my time painting and 60 to 70% on administrative work. I paint canvas edges, varnish paintings, string the art (add hooks and wire) and I ship. I photograph and inventory my art. I run my social media. There’s a lot of marketing involved,” Leja shared.

While her joy is in creating original art, Leja also has a licensing agreement with a company that reproduces her art on prints, pillows, cocktail napkins, and trays. It’s a way for more people to see her art in different forms and to acquire more affordable prints.

An artist’s advice

Leja is quick to encourage others. “If you have a passion and think you can’t do it, pursue it anyway. If I could start from nothing, make a full business out of it and get to do what I am passionate about every day, I think you can do anything you want if you have the mindset,” she declared.

Purchase Ali Leja art

Leja’s work can be purchased in several galleries: Marguerite’s on Dresden; Julep Farms in Dillard; High Country Art in Blue Ridge; Viola’s Market on St. Simon’s Island; Studio Gallery in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida; Anthea Le Jardin in Watersound, Florida; Camellia Art Gallery on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; and Bud Floral and Home in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“I send gallery owners pictures and let them choose. Julep Farms loves the cocktails, cigars and animals. Marguerite’s likes florals and cotton,” Leja reported. “Hat ladies do great at the beach. I know what each gallery has in mind.”

Find Leja’s artwork at alilejaart.com and on Instagram, @alilejaart.

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Patrizia Winsper

Patrizia hails from Toronto, Canada where she earned an Honors B.A. in French and Italian studies at York University, and a B.Ed. at the University of Toronto. This trilingual former French teacher has called Georgia home since 1998. She and her family have enjoyed living, working and playing in Peachtree Corners since 2013.

Around Atlanta

The High Museum to Showcase “Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind”

Published

6 days ago

December 12, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

Oil on paper artwork by Terry Winters. A large red circle with smaller blue circles on top of it and gold/yellow accents. All of it on a dark brown background.

The special exhibition of the Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will run January 17 through May 25, 2025

In the mid-1970s, artist and Georgia State University professor Medford Johnston, along with his wife and collaborator Loraine, began collecting works by artists who were in the vanguard of contemporary art. Today, they hold one of the finest collections of postwar American drawings and related objects of its kind, now numbering more than 85 works.

In 2025, the High Museum of Art will present Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection, featuring their collected works, which is a promised gift to the museum. Featuring artists such as Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, Ed Ruscha, Al Taylor, Anne Truitt, Stanley Whitney and Terry Winters, among others, the exhibition will demonstrate how establishing the parameters of an art collection requires infinite patience, focus, discipline and a keen eye.

“The Johnstons have been friends of the High for a very long time. They’ve also built an impressive collection featuring works by many of the 20th century’s most significant abstract artists,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “We are honored that they have promised to leave their collection to the Museum where it will be preserved for future generations — and we are delighted that they are sharing it with our audiences now, hopefully inspiring the next generation of art collectors and supporters.”

A curated collection

The Johnstons’ story is a testament to, in the words of the High’s Wieland Family Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Michael Rooks, “knowing the difference between what is right and what is almost right” when building a collection.

Although the Johnstons acquired several paintings and objects when they first began collecting in 1972, they quickly narrowed their focus to drawing, primarily by artists working on the frontlines of abstraction in the mid-1960s during a time of great innovation and experimentation.

Ink drawing by Anne Truitt, rectangular lines and shapes made with black ink on off-white background — Anne Truitt (American, born 1921), *Ink Drawing ’59 [11]*, 1959, ink on paper, The Johnston Collection. © Estate of Anne Truitt / The Bridgeman Art Library / Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

Rooks added, “Med and Loraine’s collection struck me at once by its single-minded focus on a specific moment in time, which was essentially the time of their contemporaries. The artists in their collection are like close friends to the Johnstons — in fact many are or were. What is equally astonishing about the collection is the Johnstons’ dogged pursuit of quality. Their in-depth knowledge of each artist’s practice combined with their understanding of specific qualities to look for — or more appropriately, to hold out for — will be a revelation to emerging collectors.”

The Johnstons have built their collection with the High in mind as the benefactor of their passion and discernment. For them, their collection “is a labor of love, pursued over more than 50 years, and we are delighted to be able to help the High Museum document and celebrate these important artists working during the same decades as our lives.”

About the exhibit

Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will be presented in the Special Exhibition Galleries on the second level of the High’s Stent Family Wing.

The exhibit is organized by the High Museum of Art and made possible through the generosity of sponsors:

Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Premier Exhibition Series Supporters Mr. Joseph H. Boland, Jr., The Fay S. and W. Barrett Howell Family Foundation, Harry Norman Realtors and wish Foundation
Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters Robin and Hilton Howell
Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporters Loomis Charitable Foundation and Mrs. Harriet H. Warren
Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters Farideh and Al Azadi, Mary and Neil Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones, Megan and Garrett Langley, Margot and Danny McCaul, Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller and Belinda Stanley-Majors and Dwayne Majors.

Support has also been provided by the Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund and USI Insurance Services.

About the High Museum of Art

Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs.

Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 19,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper.

The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process.

For more information about the High or to purchase tickets, visit high.org.

Top image: (from the collection) Terry Winters (American, born 1949), Orb, 2020, oil on paper, The Johnston Collection. © Terry Winters, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

Around Atlanta

City Springs Theatre Company Presents the Hit Musical Jersey Boys

Published

6 months ago

July 3, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

The megahit musical Jersey Boys is making its regional premiere with the City Springs Theatre Company in a five-week run.

The megahit musical Jersey Boys makes its regional premiere in City Springs Theatre Company’s (CSTC) first-ever, five-week run at the Byers Theatre in Sandy Springs.

Directed by Atlanta’s-own Shane DeLancey, and choreographed by Meg Gillentine, Jersey Boys tells the rags-to-riches story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. The show details their remarkable journey from the streets to the top of the charts, to their 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Leading the cast of Jersey Boys is Haden Rider as Frankie Valli. Rider is a City Springs Theatre Company veteran, with recent roles in both Legally Blonde (Emmett) and Fiddler on the Roof (Perchik).

Presented by Resurgens Spine Center, Jersey Boys runs from July 12 through August 11, and shines a special spotlight on home-grown talent, as the show’s four leading men are all Atlanta-area residents.

With phenomenal music, memorable characters and great storytelling, Jersey Boys follows the fascinating evolution of four blue-collar kids who became one of the greatest successes in pop-music history.

“City Springs Theatre Company is very proud to be the first in the southeast region to present Jersey Boys,” said CSTC Artistic Director and Tony Award-winner Shuler Hensley. “Our audiences have been asking for this particular show since we opened. The production is truly stacked with talent onstage and off, and we’re pulling out all the stops to bring audiences an experience that will rival any previous version of the show.”

Jersey Boys premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2005, prior to its 13-year Broadway run, from 2005 to 2017. There have been productions of the show in Las Vegas, UK/Ireland, Toronto, Melbourne, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands, Japan, Dubai and China.

Jersey Boys features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, and lyrics by Bob Crewe.

Individual tickets to see Jersey Boys are on sale now ($42 – $108), with discounts for seniors, students, groups and active and retired military personnel.

CSTC’s Box Office is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Call 404-477-4365 or visit CitySpringsTheatre.com for more information.

This production contains adult language and is recommended for mature audiences.

Performance schedule:

Arts & Literature

Local Students Show Off Their Artistic Creations

Published

7 months ago

June 2, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

Courtney Escorza, Colleen Nikopour, Laura Hwang, Jennifer Jackson, Norcross. Laura ELizabeth Martin, Payton Hirschmann, Paul Duke HS

From May 11 through May 18, the Norcross Gallery & Studios kicked off a fantastic exhibition, Reflections at Rectory, which showcased the works of 36 rising stars: AP and IB art students from our local high schools.

The opening reception celebrated their creativity and dedication. Gallery director Anne Hall presented a dozen awards generously sponsored by the community, a testament to the local support for these young artists.

One prestigious award, the Terri Enfield Memorial Award, holds special significance.

Established by Terri’s daughters, it recognizes not just artistic excellence, but also leadership, work ethic and the spirit of collaboration. Last year’s winner, Aidan Ventimiglia, even played a part in selecting this year’s recipient Jasmine Rodriguez.