Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl

In preparing for the Artist's solo exhibition, Leslie Adams: Drawn from Life, at the Toledo Museum of Art, she studied the works intended for the coinciding show, Manet: Portraying Life, and was inspired by Portrait of Eva Gonzales, the ubiquitous image of an artist at her easel. Manet depicted his subject with the traditional attributes - brushes, mahlstick, easel, and palette; but imagining a contemporary self-portrait in that manner was difficult. Thus, the Artist chose to portray herself as a child, finding the perfect doppelganger in Reagan, an aspiring young actress and a student at the prestigious Toledo School for the Arts.

In a statement, the Artist writes, "Who is this child? This child from suburban Middle America. This child whose only goal was to win a scholarship to Art Instruction Schools in hope of pursuing her artistic dream. This child with fierce determination, who copied Winky, the Boxer, and Lucky - the "Draw Me" heads from matchbook covers and magazines that have been a staple in American Pop culture since 1914. This child of the 60s and 70s, in madras plaid, in front of her first easel. It’s me. And, I am still at my easel. No, I didn’t win that prize as a child, but the Warhol Scholarship I won to study classical drawing at the New York Academy of Art, more than made up for my earlier disappointment. So, with a bit of irony, “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl” tells the story of my education, weaving classical and old master references with a healthy dash of 20th and 21st century pop culture. This portrait, however personal, is also a reminder that we all share in the universality of childhood dreams and aspirations."

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