Leslie Stoner

Multimedia Artist

Oak Harbor, Washington

Leslie Stoner grew up in northwest Montana on a 50 acre mink farm tucked deep in the woods of the Rocky Mountains. Her close observations of darkness and light started early; as a child storms raged in and out of her home. To escape she spent most of her time outdoors, racing through the fields of stinging knapweed, playing hide and seek with the trees, wrestling with the creek, or cocooning herself in a burrow until the thunder had gone. Leslie Stoner’s studio is nestled on the edge of a forest looking out onto an array of plant life that creates the shelter and privacy in which she craves. She finds inspiration from her surroundings and listens to a myriad of singer/songwriters who weave together visual landscapes using their poetic voice. Early in her career she managed the studios of Encaustic painter Betsy Eby and realist painter Bo Bartlett and simultaneously graduated (Summa Cum Laude) with a Bachelor of Arts from Cornish College of the Arts, double-majoring in Painting and Photography. Her work is showcased and collected through the North.