Leah Macdonald
Ladder- Lostlightluv No. 369, 2022
Analog mono print - silver gelatin print
24 x 20"

About the work
Lostlightluv is a collection of my one of a kind analog silver prints taken over the span of 20 plus years with a 4 x 5 view camera. I photograph women and evoke stories and about things that are happening, both real and unreal. I enjoy the combination of figure, location and mystery. I use 4 x 5 Type 55 Polaroid film also for the unknowns and unpredictable outcomes of the photographs. This image was taken in France.

Bio
Leah Macdonald transforms her photographs into artifacts, one-of-a-kind conceptions that suggest the imperfection and multiplicity of memory and decay. The heart of her mixed media work, a poignant sense of revisitation and return. Her passion is sharing her art and creativity with others through teaching workshops, art exhibitions and her prolific internet portfolios. Her new technique "photogestic" is the fruition of all her years of experimenting with altered surface analog photography and mixing media. It combines her three skills in art: photography, collage and encaustic painting. When transforming photographs from slivers of reality to complete fantasy, she expresses the tales of womanhood. She uses collage to place her figures and photographs in new and surreal environments. Her intuition with encaustics allows beeswax to embellish and veil her models. She carefully draws on the wax to decorate and control the visibility of the subject. Layering these mediums by manipulating surface texture and color grants her the ability to express her imagination and bring her art vision to life.

She was born in Philadelphia, she attended college in San Francisco and then went on to receive her MFA in Photography from the California College of Art. She enjoyed a long and varied career path within the arts:commercial photography, professional analog printer and college professor. She was the Education Curriculum Director at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center. In 2007 she was asked to do a live encaustic painting demonstration on the Martha Stewart show. Other highlights include a solo retrospective of encaustic nudes at Wexler gallery in 2010. In 2016 she was the scenic director of In My Body Musical. In 2017 she was selected as the recipient of the NewCourtland Fellowship by The Center for Emerging Visual Artists.In 2018 she was an artist in residence at the Encaustic Castle. She recently launched a new website; Lost Light Luv, it features her legacy analog photography. In 2023 she exhibited 70 one of a kind photographs and published a book of selected images. Her encaustic photography art is represented by Inliquid Arts, Saatchi Art, GalerieBMG, Venvi Gallery and Cerulean Art Gallery in Philadelphia. Leah is an art educator and is always finding new and innovative ways to connect art and people.

www.lostlightluv.com
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