Chittenden County, Vermont Moments with Melinda, 10 Aug 2023

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From YouTube: Interview with Leslie Fry | Moments with Melinda

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From Melinda Moulton:

Leslie Fry is a 3rd Generation Vermonter who is an award-winning multi-media artist. Her work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries. Her public sculptures have been commissioned worldwide. Leslie Fry is one of the most celebrated and accomplished Vermont artists.

8/10/2023

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A

B

Good morning and welcome to moments with Melinda, it's nice to have you with me today for my guest today, I have Leslie fry hi Leslie. How are you I'm, fine Melinda? How are you I'm, fine, I'm, so glad that you agreed to join me and talk about your life and your career?

B

um But let me start by telling my viewers, just who you are Leslie Frye- is a third generation vermonter, who is an award-winning multimedia artist. Her work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries. Her public sculptures have been commissioned worldwide. Leslie fry is one of the most celebrated and accomplished Vermont artists and Leslie I'm. So pleased to have you with me here today.

A

Thank you, I'm honored, to be on your show and I've looked at some of your other interviews, and uh this is great looking forward.

B

To it, well, you have a lot. You have a lot to share with my viewers um and I also want to share share with folks that you and I are also good friends. We also go back in time and we're good friends.

B

um So, let's Leslie, let's start at the beginning, um can you talk a little bit about your growing up in Vermont because you are a third generation vermonter uh talk to us a little bit about that.

A

Okay, um if you're a vermonitor- and you want to get technical I was born in Montreal, which is where my father is from.

A

um My mother was from Barry Vermont and she went to Mcgill and that's how she met my father, but they split up when I was three and she moved back to Vermont, so just get that little technicality out of the way and um yeah I grew up in Stowe, uh looking at Mount Mansfield every day out the window of our living room and, of course, growing up in Stowe, uh part of phys Ed in school was skiing, every Friday for free and then on the weekends, free and so I grew up looking at mountains, skiing and hiking in mountains like feeling them and I mentioned that, because over time, when I was older and traveled to other places and really observed, Landscapes I realized how important mountains have been to me as I think it's the reason.

A

I'm a Sculptor and by the way I live in Winooski and right now, f-35s are flying over. So I hope it's not too noisy, and you can hear me. Okay, I.

B

Can hear you perfectly now you're in your studio, right.

A

um You want me to keep talking about childhood or yeah.

B

I love I'd love to to talk a little bit about your education and about growing up, and my next question was that I wanted to ask you uh was at what point did you realize you wanted to be an artist okay.

A

um Ever since I was a little girl and I think um not to generalize too much about culture and so on, but the fact that I was a girl, um even though you know, I wasn't from a conservative family and nobody said boo, yeah fine, be an artist and plus I grew up. My father moved to New York, so he was the only one that ever put a negative on that um like how are you going to make a living, whereas my mother was a beatnik and so growing up?

A

She let us draw on paint all over the walls and stuff you know. So um this is so yes. I always knew I wanted to be an artist, and nobody ever said bad idea, and so I totally focused on that, and you know in school, I was the class artist and all that stuff, and it's just been I think until I graduated from high school and I was going to college. It's just been a definite in my life and then a few times I've had a hey, wait, a minute.

A

You never really tried anything else, because you were so sure you were going to be an artist. Let's explore dance, let's explore this, but no it's stuck I mean that's it, but over the years, I've also tried to not be a sculptor, because it's so inconvenient unless you're independently wealthy I mean you know to make sculpture, especially if it can be if it's going to be outside the materials or it storing it. If it's going to be inside shipping it trying to sell it, and so I've tried being a painter many times.

A

But again you know nature calls or, however, you want to put it sculpture and then I sort of relate that to the Vermont landscape and mountains. Mountains are big sculptures made by.

B

The by the glaciers will you yeah, but maybe something more spiritual too. Maybe so that's very true, my friend um so yeah you're, a multimedia artist, so Leslie, who had the greatest impact on your life and the choices that you've made.

B

A

Wow, um that could be many, but I will as soon as you said, that what sprang, to my mind- oh, oh, no I'll mention two teachers. um I was fortunate enough to go to the Putney School for two years, and there was, uh you know, is the Putney School.

A

It was great, you know uh they had a painting teacher and a sculpture teacher and the sculpture teacher was Robin Campbell and she was just really cool, and you know you just see her outside in all kinds of weather she was a Carver carving, huge wooden sculptures and I was assigned. She was assigned to be my advisor and the first day I met her. You know, I met her in the sculpture studio and she was just you know: she's not touchy, feeling warm or anything she's. Just.

B

I lost you, Leslie I lost. You can.

A

B

You're back okay: where did you lose.

A

B

You were talking about your the your your art teacher, who was very cool. Okay um anyway, he had a great influence on you, yeah.

A

She taught sculpture, Robin, Campbell I, don't know where I got cut off but anyway, so the first day I met her because she was my advisor. It was in the sculpture studio and she was very tough and very brief and just said, here's my back room and there's a cot in there. If you ever need to cry, you know come on over, and that was it.

A

That was our meeting and then fast forward to I did High School in three years and then I went to UVM and a lot of people in Vermont would be familiar with Paul ashenbach and he was a great mentor to me and many others and- um and it really meant a lot to me, I was only I started out at seven, probably by the time I was 18 or so I had already taken a few courses with him and he said to me: you've got what it takes, which meant a lot and so I'd say he was a huge influence and he was very Hands-On like why?

A

Don't you I I've all I've I've tried carving stone, wood, I've done welding I've done all this stuff and I'm a natural modeler. You know I like my hands to be in messy stuff, which you know, then, if you want it to be permanent, usually you have to cast it, and so he'd say things like okay, you made this thing now make a plaster mold now run around to all the garages in town and ask them for uh the lead weights for balancing tires. This is really dates me, so this is like the early 70s.

A

No first of all, no teacher would ever say this like, in other words, go melt. Some lead, you know and pour it into this mold and I still have some of those castings anyway, I'd say as far as teachers go um those two reinforced. My life is a sculptor specifically.

B

Now you talk about the importance of community in your life. Can you talk a little bit about that.

A

Okay, um I'm I'm I've always been single, except for this. This is going to sound silly, except for numerous relationships, but uh one lasted about 10 years, and so you know didn't get married, didn't have kids uh et cetera, Etc, so I think that Community as far as emotional support or when you break a bone or you're really sick and you're alone and also as an artist.

A

The support I've received from living here is, has been like integral I I've. You know, I've lived in New, York and London and Montreal is an adult at various times, but I kept coming back here and oh in Florida, and you know I just I'll I'll, never yeah and I I'll just never be able to replace uh the long term friendships and even people that I don't know that. Well, it's we all know who live in Vermont.

A

What happens when you are stuck in the snow or a flood unfortunately happens and people come and they help right and vice versa.

B

Beautifully said so you are a sculptor and you have said that you make it with your body and you experience it with your body. Can you share with my viewers a little bit about that yeah.

A

I mean I like that in the beginning, you said multimedia artists, because yes, I work, two-dimensionally um I've done videos, I've done performance, art I've done other stuff, but sculpture is my main passion and I. Think a few things about sculpture. Why to me it's the most real because you are actually and when I say: sculptor I I mean making objects, because there are many brilliant sculptors who are just working with sound or just working with light, and you know so on installation. It's. But to me a physical object is making some kind of reality.

A

Whereas- and this isn't a put down a painting, but a painting asks you to enter into this other world within this rectangle or whatever shape it is, whereas to make a physical object, you have to use arms hands depending how big it is. Your whole body lifting using materials that are real figuring out how this thing is going to like architecture, structurally work and last and then you've made something that, like a building or a landscape, someone has to experience with all their senses. They don't just look at it with their eyes.

A

You know, and if it's what I like to do, is to make things that can live outdoors and that are really really permanent like cast and bronze. So you can also touch it. It's indestructible, you know it's living with the elements and you experience it in the round and it might actually have a sound and it might have a scent. It depends where it is and what it's made out of, and you experience it fully as opposed to just visually.

B

So let's talk about the piece of work on Shelburne Road and for my viewers, if you drive down Shelburne, Road and uh and you're at the where the TJ Maxx is that that development, um one of Leslie's installations, is there talk about that installation? Because I bet you most of my viewers who are watching this have seen that and admired it and wondered about it.

A

Yeah, okay, um I I created that that was finished in 1999 and um it's a public art project and I collaborated with a great architect right, Shelburne, Stephen, Schenker, and um you know it's a competition to get these things and we were semi-finalists along with two others. And um let's see there are a lot of things I could say, but here regarding public art, the usual trend is, if you are creating something for a public space, is what does that public space? Ask for what does it need? Are you going with some history?

A

Are you going with some visual or architectural element, um or how does it serve the people that circulate in that space? If it is that kind of space- and you know this is Shelburne Road, it's on a shopping strip and we were just like we decided to do the opposite: to create some kind of space that had nothing to do with the surroundings and.

B

Oops I lost you, there are you there.

B

Are you there Leslie.

B

Shoot there you are you're back.

A

um You know I have full bars, so I'm not sure I do too I don't know what's going on, okay, um but I, wonder if something happens, if I move too much and I should keep my hands.

B

Nothing nothing that shouldn't have anything to do with it has to do with the with the heavens above or whatever, but don't you worry about that you're back. um So uh thank you for sharing that and I, and for my viewers, I've experienced I know. Probably most of my viewers have and um let's move on to what are some of your oh by the way to my viewers.

B

I want I would love you to go to www.lesly, Frye l-e-s-l-I-e-f-r-y.com and visit Leslie's website, uh you'll, learn so much about Leslie and see her work and it's a beautiful website. So I encourage you all to go visit her website so Leslie. What are some of your most memorable projects? I mean you have a piece behind you um and and also you merge the female form a lot with birds. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah.

A

I will and I just wanna I will I want to add on just a little bit when you asked me about the park on Shelburne Road, so we made a circular space with a sitting wall, so people could be there, but the sculptures I made were what people call them gargoyles, but they're sphinxes, and just getting back to what you said: they're female figures that are part uh well there there's sphinxes, but they have wings and they also have paws and the tall ones on the columns have tails that you don't see anymore because of all the vines so they're.

A

You know my theme is transformation, and- and so like you say right behind me- there's um oh and sphinx is our Guardian. So the idea is that they're guarding the people in the space on Shelburne, Road, okay and there's a bus stop there. So there's a reason um behind me is a more recent sculpture uh called arise and it's a bird woman um in a positive form, because some people think of harpies um and.

A

It's an it's in mythology. They um sort of Menace and scare off people, bird women, but we don't. No that's not. The idea is this is a woman who can fly okay and um and so and she's. Looking up, she's got boots on because she's from Vermont and she's also Down to Earth but um she's looking up and what I, what the coolest part for me is because I love dealing with the relationship of sculptures and their pedestals or bases like very inspired by brancusi, but in a different way.

A

um She's on this column- and there are all these women bird women who are flying and and they're like crazy sort of you know, really flying and they have on all different kinds of shoes like high heels or espadrilles, or you know more boots. Knee-High boots stuff, like that, so they're kind of like her subconscious or inspiration flying around and she's looking up about, hopefully about to fly off, and so that's to me.

A

It's a very positive, uh sculpture and um and I made her in bronze, so she can live outside and PS she's for sale.

B

Wow all right so lesliefry.com visit Leslie's website. So now your work has received International claim um and it's an incredible list of accomplishments and awards Leslie. How difficult was it to take your art and turn it into a business.

A

Yeah I, don't even know if you call it a business, it's just like how to survive as an artist.

A

um Yes, I mean like most again again unless you've got money like most artists, I've done a million jobs to support myself while trying to be an artist and um and teaching has been the most common route, um but at various times uh you know, I do adjunct teaching, but I try to get commissions and so on, and then, like many artists, I went for a tenure track position which was in Florida, and it was the worst a job experience. I've ever had and so I left there and thought now.

A

What but I learned a lot being in Florida and one thing is: they have lots of money for public art commissions, so I thought I'm really going to focus on public art, and so that got me into more of a head of you seek out opportunities. You have to create proposals and drawings and models and learn how to write better, which is still a struggle for me and um uh get commissions. You know and then I.

A

You know I still do that, but I've also I've I have an online shop which is on my website for smaller sculptures and and two-dimensional works of art. It's just. There was no decision to become a business, it's just how to survive, how to survive, how to pay the bills and do whatever you know apply for Grants. You know this past year, I got a creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council um and yeah. It's just.

A

How does how do you survive if you don't have a regular like, for instance, tenured position as a professor or some other like stable, but job that doesn't totally drain you? Oh, oh and wait. I and I want to add one more thing, because younger artists go oh my God. How? How do you do it? Blah blah blah and I said? Listen, I, I hate to tell you this, but now that I'm old, which also means I've, lost some physical strength.

A

Things got a little easier because the second I turned 62 Social Security, then at 65 Medicare, so I got I get money per month, plus the whole health insurance thing, I'm just getting down to details and brass tacks, because it is damn hard to survive as an artist, and so things got a little easier simply because I got older. You know.

B

Well, good for you thank you for sharing that um so I just want to say that you have been reviewed by some of the most important art influencers in the country and again my viewers can see that see those accolades at lesliefry.com.

B

um Your your art has been been focused on feminist thinking, fairy tales, dreamlike quirky nature human consciousness in the natural world.

B

um So let's move to your garden because you have sculptures in your garden and my understanding is that your mother and your grandmother were really influencers on your love of gardening and flowers.

A

um Yeah I I think I must have said something about that somewhere, I don't know if they were no, it's sort of the opposite I, even though I grew up in Vermont, and you know yeah shoveled, cow and stuff. Like that I'd look at my grandmother and my mother like bent over you, know clawing at the Earth and I'd go. Why are they bothering?

A

You know I I, didn't love girl, no I, just love, I love, flowers and when I was a little girl, and this is like totally I- think a definition of who I am I. Do things rather intensely I I picked a pansy and I was just going. This is so beautiful and I sniffed it really hard and it went up. My nose and I had to go to the doctor and have it taken out because I do things intensely and I love flowers, but you know that's like going overboard.

A

I, don't know why I'm telling that well.

B

Because you, because you're so honest and open with comic relief but anyway a couple of Tauruses. What can I say.

A

B

So so Ken Picard highlighted you in his article Body Works in seven days, and he said, quote: human-like sculptures that have one foot in the Botanical world and another an ancient architecture, and then he goes on to describe your garden. Okay, oh.

A

Okay, so I don't know we're probably running out of time. So my in my life as an artist and a person totally changed when I became a homeowner, then you know so. I live I've lived in the same place in Winooski now for 33 years, I bought it in 99 in love with the place, but it was a duplex because I couldn't afford a mortgage by myself. There was a garage that was going to be on my studio.

A

An extra bonus, a barn and I wanted a big yard and it was very plain and I thought well I'm, just going to make it into this magical environment. Can you hear me I.

B

Can hear you you're still there, okay and.

A

um And so uh the first thing I did is I planted a hedge around this big lot to start making it into a more private green room and over all these years um you know, I've added sculptures and I've experimented with plantings, integrated with sculptures, and my goal is that you'll walk into this sculpture garden and not know what what year you're in or where you are necessarily that it's you know like this magic place and so I mean when I bought the place. I didn't know.

A

I was going to be doing this for 33 years, but um yeah. That's my jam. Yeah.

B

It's beautiful, it's so beautiful, so now, I want to just let my viewers know um that on September 28th of this year you will be receiving the governor's award for artistic excellence and the event is going to be held at Main, Street, Landing and I just want to congratulate you, because that's an extraordinary Accolade that you can add to the many many many accolades that you've received in your career.

A

Thank you, Melinda, yes and totally out of the blue, so out of the blue, but so.

B

Well, well, it's really well deserved, um so I want to talk a little bit about the current state of our planet uh for a moment, um I know that you care deeply about our natural world. What do you see as the hope for our future on this warming planet.

B

What's your hope.

A

B

A

My hope is what anybody would hope. It's more when I get stuck on that questions. What can we do now to radically change the way things are going and I don't know the answer.

A

I know that um we have to keep having hope and um so, for instance, that bird woman I feel like she's hopeful and not that she's gonna fly away from here, but you know that she's looking upwards at the sky and taking it all in and that we have to just keep working towards making this a better Planet against all the odds, all the entrenched um habits really and people don't like to change and big business money. They don't want to change anything and somehow I. Don't.

B

Have any answers? I don't have any answers, but your work, but your work is is transformational and when you experience your work, it gives us all hope. Now um we do have a few more minutes. Left and I want to focus. I want to just touch on your dad John Frye, um because he passed away a few years ago and he had just authored his book.

B

His fascinating book called abandoned foolish scheme, which is something his father said to him when he was going off to do something very foolish and he wrote this book at the end of his life.

B

um Now you took on that project after he died to get it finished and published, and it is a must read, abandoned Fuller scheme. I I encourage you, I've sent it out to so many of my friends um to read it. uh Can you talk a little bit about taking on this project right after his passing Leslie.

A

uh Yeah um I, really, okay, um so the year, my okay, the Christmas before my dad turned 90, which was January 22nd, um 20, no I'm, not I'm, terrible at remembering dates. Okay anyway, he asked all of us family, uh his granddaughters. You know my brother, my sister me to be there at Christmas and he said possibly for the first and last time.

A

Okay, so we were all there and then less than a month later he had his 90th birthday and he and his wife went off to Puerto Rico to celebrate it and the day before he left. He sent me an email and said you know if anything, he worded it better, but he said, if anything happens to me, my book is on my computer and I want it published.

A

You know like, like that's so easy because he I know he'd been trying for a few years to get an agent and so on and I thought yeah nothing's going to happen and then they were out swimming and he had a heart attack and died and while swimming having a good time celebrating his birthday, and so naturally with that kind of a message and as a way to mourn- and you know, of course so I got the manuscript and uh worked with Tina Christensen a great book designer and had it edited and um it the book is about dying too I mean that's what the theme is it's incredible, but it's also about all the adventures and risks he took and even though, as a parent, he was the parent who would say to me.

A

Why do you have to be an artist? You know you never make any money, you know, get a real job, blah blah yeah. Well, if you look at his life, you know he.

B

Was an artist he was a, he was yeah.

A

Different yeah, he almost died like a million times doing crazy things so um yeah anyway, it was. It was a tribute to him, but it was his creation just to get it out there so not to promote Amazon, but if anybody's interested you can get it there. Well.

B

And I bet: if they call Phoenix books, our local bookstore, they could get for you as well now Leslie we have. We have run out of time, so I just want to. Thank you today for your hat for your time to share with my viewers, your life, your career, your wisdom um and I love.

B

You and I respect you so much and I look forward to your event uh on the 28th uh September 28th at Main, Street Landing, to celebrate you and your lifelong work and I wish you well my friend and I hope to see you soon. Okay, thank you very much, really appreciate it and to my viewers. Thank you. Thank you for joining me with Leslie fry and again go to our website. Lesliefry.Com, okay and have a beautiful August day. Bye-Bye.