By Leslie Chandler

Lately, I have been feeling the squeeze of being pigeon-holed as an artist. It’s like someone asking you what your favourite dessert is, and you have several but you can only choose one. Or, which is your favourite child? Impossible to choose at all! So, with this new Web site endeavour, a business perspective of an artist’s “children”— my paintings, sketches and linocuts — I find myself in the unanticipated and most awkward position of categorizing my creativity.

Am I a realist, a watercolorist, an abstract realist, a contemporary fauvist, still life or landscape artist? (Well, is it Monday?) Which medium do I use: pencil, ink, acrylic inks, acrylics, watercolors, or a multimedia approach? (Is it Friday yet?) Do I paint only miniatures or large-scale canvases? (Is it July?)

Maybe I am just stubborn enough to resist the confines of an easy description for the sake of preserving my joy in having this one area of my life without boundaries. When I look at the world around me, I see beauty in so many different things, real and imagined, from vivid colors to subtle monochromes. Sometimes the full expression of what I paint (or draw or print) must only be on a large canvas, quickly preserving the moment that had already excited my imagination. Or, it must be painstakingly re-imagined on a smaller, more intimate scale so that what is created is true and honest to the essence of the subject.

And what of the subject? Is it a place? Or a memory? Or a form of gratitude to my God for allowing me to find joy in the beauty of His creation, no matter what it is: people, places, real or imagined, ideas or reality, still life or portrait?

How on earth can I limit my creative expression? I don’t know how to be pigeon-holed. And for that, I am so grateful!