Life was anything but easy growing up on Cutler Street during the early 1940s. At the time, the bustling street in Schenectady’s Mont Pleasant neighborhood was crowded with low-income and immigrant families. Poverty was common, and there was seldom time to do anything but work.
Artist Leigh Wen delves into the natural — rugged snow-capped mountains, raging infernos and swirling winds. Yet she is most at home in the water — both raging and calm, icy and inviting. She is submerged in the element. And her massive canvases, as well as her small square porcelain reliefs, convey the expanse and fickleness of oceans, rivers and streams.
Her renderings of water are currently on show at the Beacon Institute through July 8. And on June 13, her waves will be illuminated in the windows of the Albany Center Gallery Posted on June 1, 2008.
Artist Wen holds a porcelain sculpture that was created with Taiwanese ceramicist Chen-Long Lin. He crafted the rock-like formations and she filled in the smooth areas with images of water.
Wen holds up her “Earth, Sea and Echoes,” one of several ceramic sculptures in which earth and water collide. Some of these works are on display at the Beacon Institute.
This giant canvas, depicting the power and beauty of water, will be illuminated in the windows of Albany Center Galleries. The painting is to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Hudson River.
