We recently connected with Leslie Hoyt and have shared our conversation below.
Leslie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
As a photographer, I was trained to get an image right in camera. My focus and exposure should be spot on. If I was photographing a flower, for instance, it should be sharp front to back. It needed to be perfect.
So then the pandemic comes along, and a friend suggests I take an online class from Martin Osner, a South African photographer who uses a lot of experimental techniques to create fine art with photography. This was SO far out of my comfort zone! I took a perfectly good photograph and used various methods, including using hand sanitizer, to transfer it to watercolor paper. Of course it was impossible to get it to transfer perfectly. But I found that the resulting piece was beautiful, and that the imperfections were a big part of the beauty. Then I was asked to do several color variations of one image, cut it apart, and then piece it back together in a different order. Again, a surprising and beautiful (imperfect) result!
This kept happening with each assignment, and then I started experimenting on my own. Over time I had this huge realization that it was good to take a risk in my art. It was okay to let go of some of the control in the process of making art. The serendipity and little imperfections, or as Bob Ross said, “happy accidents”, were interesting and beautiful.
Oscar Wilde said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” Just like in my photography, I tried so hard to control things in my life to be as perfect as possible. I thought I needed to be the perfect wife. The perfect mom. Of course you know the punchline here – that is impossible! It has been an interesting time of growth in my personal life, and that has followed my growth in my creative life. I’m finding that in life, like art, the imperfections are part of the beauty.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
After graduating with a business degree, I ended up working at a software company. I managed projects and a team of people who implemented our software. After doing that for 15 years I retired to stay home with my children. My husband encouraged me to find a hobby (I’d never really had time for one before) so I took a nature photography class since I’d enjoyed photography since high school.
I then decided I wanted to learn about portrait photography. I started taking some classes through various affiliates of Professional Photographers of America (PPA). I enjoyed it so much I started a portrait photography business! I had this business for 15 years, until the pandemic. At that time I realized that although I loved my clients, I didn’t miss being tied to a weekly schedule. My husband was starting to travel for work and as empty nesters I wanted to have the freedom to go with him.
I had been commissioned to photograph some of the beautiful Art Deco buildings in Tulsa (where we live) and then kept getting contacted by people who wanted to purchase those images. That made me wonder if there might be a market for selling fine art photography. I had also been entering PPA competitions, and had success with some of the flowers I photographed for fun. I digitally painted some of these and really enjoyed the creativity. I created a body of of the flower work, and Leslie Hoyt Fine Art was born.
My work tends to be a series of small vignettes of wherever I travel. While I am in awe of a grand landscape, the real wonder for me lives within the details: the curve of a rose petal, the weathered door on an old building, the pattern left by waves on a beach, or a path through the forest.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
My husband has a job where he can work from anywhere. I love that as an artist I can travel with him in our overlander camper van and work from the road. I always travel with my camera gear, as well as a small art kit! I even bought a mini photo printer. I feel very fortunate that I am able to travel to remote places and have time to really get a feel for the locations we visit. I am enjoying taking photographs, combining them and using those in art pieces that hopefully capture the essence of a place, rather than just what it looks like.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I am going through a major learning phase right now, and have been since before the pandemic. I didn’t take any art classes beyond 7th grade, and I feel like I’m catching up on all things “art” right now! I’ve been playing with all kinds of traditional art materials and processes like acrylics, watercolor, encaustic wax, and am also experimenting with a variety of ways to print my photos, many not very traditional! I feel that photography will always be a part of my artistic process, but I’m loving incorporating other materials and more of the hand of the artist in the final product.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lesliehoyt.com/
- Instagram: @lesliehoyt
- Facebook: @LeslieHoytFineArt
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliehoyt
Image Credits
Leslie Hoyt