Welcome

Leslie Bender is a talented and acclaimed U.S. artist from New Paltz, New York.  In addition to her personal work, Bender creates murals, portraits and theater backdrops on commission. Use the Navigation below to learn about Leslie Bender, her work, and her artistic services.

Artist Statement
My work for the last 30 years has involved commissioned portraiture, theater backdrops, public and private murals, and educational programs - both classroom teaching and project leadership through work with groups. But the main body of my work - paintings, drawings, prints and sketches - has concerned situations and ideas that are supercharged with life energy and have drawn me like a magnet from the day I first picked up a paintbrush. These include the edge of the ocean, social interactions, the symphony orchestra, the symbolic power and grace of horses, and the many implications of allegory, dream and myth. In each, I invest my passions, my intuition and whatever knowledge and experience I have gained to fulfill the purpose of the artist in any society --i.e. to interpret our individual and communal life experience and to reach towards expressing universal and spiritual truths.