Leesa Haapapuro is an artist and instructor in Dayton, Ohio. She’s taught at a number of local colleges, including Wright State University and Sinclair Community College.
Leesa’s work explores the boundaries of form, while exploring the place of an artist in the world. As she writes in her artist statement: “I have been exploring my place as an artist in society, questioning conflicting desires for peaceful isolation versus a need for a greater sense of community. I try to balance my solitary studio practice with efforts to connect with others.”
Her efforts to “connect with others” are often radical and transformative. In 2007, she started a portrait project at the Datyon Visual Arts Center. Dubbed, “Portraits in Progress,” the work invited people throughout Dayton to stop in, model and pose for drawings and sculptures. Leesa built a portable sculpture studio for the project, carting it with her throughout the city — inviting passersby to pose, observe and interact with the artist at work.
I hope that by working in an open studio environment I can communicate my fascination with the process, and share the sense absorption and heightened awareness that I get when I’m involved in my work. -Leesa Haapapuro
SS: You have done quite a few collaborative projects. Why work with other artists?
LH: I love the idea of collaboration but it’s very challenging for me to actually do. I like to maintain artistic control over “my” projects. I keep trying though… it’s important to be able to give/take.
SS: And, can you tell us about one of your favorite collaborative projects?
LH:Recently I’ve been volunteering with The Zoot Theater Company which is incredibly collaborative organization that uses puppets and masks. I enjoy the process of working with other artists on something that isn’t “mine” but I do have an emotional investment in. It’s amazing to – literally- see the work come to life!
SS: What it is about embodying a “living quality” that is so interesting? I ask this because clearly that is aspect as a puppeteer but also you seem to value the life in the act of creating above the finished form in material. Do you feel you have to be physically present for your work to be active?
LH: Though I am not a performer/puppeteer I love watching the puppets I’ve helped create in performance. The puppets always have the potential to become active, and I tried to give my studio installation that same sense. I don’t think I need to be there to activate it.
drawings from Leesa's Portrait Project
SS: Specifically in your Portrait Project, your work is very much about process and the act of sculpting, how do you document and present the work for show?
LH: The “open studio” is the most important part of the installation. Ideally I would be able to be in the gallery everyday sculpting, but I hope the sculptures in progress and the evidence of work will be enough for people to get the idea.
SS: Would you agree that in your work, it is important for you to have a person model for you while you are working?
LH: Yes.
SS: Is it important to have a connection with them?
LH: I find that it’s almost impossible not to form some sort of connection. It fascinates me that the process seems to promote a kind of peace even in the midst of a bustling atmosphere. Sometimes a sense of intimacy develops during the modeling sessions.
SS: Do you have a particular favorite model?
LH: My current project is always my favorite! While it’s still in progress it seems more exciting than finished work.
SS: You mentioned you give the drawing and sculpted bust as a gift to the models who volunteered to sit for you. Some would say that in giving the work away devalues your work?
LH: I just finished reading Steve Martin’s novel “An Object of Beauty”. The main character begins “converting objects of beauty into objects of value” and it ends predictably. While it was entertaining, it was an emotionally empty book.
I hope that making a gift of my time and effort does not devalue the work, and my Aunt is the only person who has ever said that to me. She’s usually right though, so I bet others have thought it. I tell her (and would tell anyone else) that it just wouldn’t be the same if I were being commissioned. If the models were not volunteers, but “clients” the dynamic would be completely different. It wouldn’t be interesting to me.
Leesa Haapapuro installing work
SS: What are you currently working on?
LH:Five Rivers Metro Parks has asked me to do a site specific temporary sculptural installation to run concurrent with Patrick Dougherty’s visit to the area. I’m working on 12 monumental figures which I will cast in natural materials and concrete mixed with safety glass. I would like to submerge the figures in the canals along Patterson Avenue in downtown Dayton.
I will host workshops asking people to help me make flowers from brightly colored scraps of plastic which will float on the surface of the water. I wanted to pay tribute to the thousands who died digging the canals, known at the time as the longest cemetery. The park has yet to give me the final okay, some think it might be “creepy” but I’m going ahead with it and will hope they will agree soon.
SS: I appreciate creepy projects. Where did you come up with the idea for this work?
LH: I was asked to make a site-specific temporary installation using natural and recycled materials and install it in one of the Metro Parks this summer. The idea came from the site. Six narrow, shallow pools made of black granite placed along Patterson Avenue where the Canal once flowed. They seem sterile and decorative but the story they represent was incredibly rich and sad. The canals were an amazing feat, a marvelous endeavor.
SS: How many people died making the canal?
LH: It was said that there was one dead Irishmen for every mile of canal dug. There is no way to know how many died and were buried along the banks in unmarked graves. After the Irish moved on to work for the railroad, which was a faster, more reliable and cheaper way to travel, Africans were hired to finish the job. Countless men died from Malaria and other diseases as well accidents. The Miami Erie Canal was obsolete before it was completed. It became a dumping ground/ cesspool and an eyesore before it was finally filled in.
SS: In tackling this subject around death, how do you infuse an appreciation for life?
LH: I like your idea that I’m “interested in embodying a living quality” may I use that line? It could become the first sentence in my long overdue new statement of purpose…I may end it with something about my desire to “infuse an appreciation for life” if that’s okay with you?
SS: Of course.
SS: Now, your materials are very specific, do you have a reason for choosing them?
LH: I never realized what a horrible ordeal it was to dig the canals before I started my research. Clearing the land and digging with hand tools was back breaking labor and the hours were long. The German immigrants, who farmed the land, soon refused to continue to do canal work. Irish immigrants were brought in and paid in part with whiskey, because as one “jigger boss” said: you couldn’t very well ask them to do the job sober!”
The futility appalled and appealed to me. Existential stuff. I’m going to try to show appreciation for the beauty and transitory nature of those “wasted” lives using the materials we have disposed of.
SS: It sounds like you will be busy; please keep us informed as you complete the project and thank you for sharing.
Visit Leesa Haapapuro’s website at http://www.leesahaapapuro.com
This artical was originally written and published for The Artists Interview Magazine. www.theartistsinterview.com
