Leslie Lyman

I create intimate impressions that mark and remember what history fails to tell us about the everyday lives of women – the daily efforts, the steady presence, the invisible toil, the love and the loss that we all experience. My sculptures and photographs stand in perpetual tribute to this caregiving – women’s work – that persists through generations. My work deliberately blends old and new, fully aware that there are stories embedded deep within them and knowing that recollection, sentiment, intention and attention are passed on to the lives of other women. My art is informed by a lifetime of caregiving and an understanding of the historical lineage from which this work comes. My art is driven by the lack of understanding and VALUE placed on this essential work. To illustrate, when you look up the word ‘herstory’ in a digital thesaurus you get an insistent No Results Found. This is followed by proposed suggestions - did you mean ‘history’, as in HIS story not HERs. Or did you mean ‘hot story’ which might also be the summary of his story. Other options include ‘destroy’ and ‘restore’ which are the perfect SAT verbal pairing of history is to herstory as destroy is to restore. Continuing thesaurus suggestions include ‘helotry’ defined as a state of working under duress or without freedom; or ‘harlotry’ which is ever so succinctly defined here as whoredom. Nice options. My favorite proffered substitution, however, is ‘heartsore’ which describes my feelings precisely. Why can’t herstory be as important as his? We can most certainly begin by fully acknowledging the word and the intention behind its use. I am interested in HERstory. I am interested in making the work, the lives, the mundane, necessary chores of women visible, applauded, celebrated and fully acknowledged. It is time for our stories to truly matter.