The digital footprint for Les Pinter is not a significant one, but having spent just thirty minutes with him on my recent Love Art in Calgary tour, I have to say that he has left a huge impression.  One excellent bit of biographical writing is found in FFWD magazine dated as far back as 2009 and written by Laurel Smith.  Because of this artist’s complete humility, this article is key to insights on his commitment to a craft that astounds.

I will begin by posting two images for consideration…these small stencils, pulled from a tiny box of “magic”.

In the box, are found a great number of tiny cut-outs, each a unique motif to be used again and again for larger works.  I like this description, taken directly from FFWD magazine.

“Some of the messages underlying Pinter’s work are inspired by television because he sees media as being responsible for shaping our personal realities. “Consciousness is affected by what is on the news,” he says. Then he places a grid of cutouts on the glass surface of his television to demonstrate how he screens the programs he watches. The cutouts exist as a kind of fusion between icon and symbol, text and texture, sensation and spectacle, politics and humanity.”

I was in awe of the craftsmanship and the skill in producing these monumental pieces.  But probably most intriguing to me were the many insights and the intellectual processes that occur during the process of creation.  The conceptual qualities of the work boggle me.

From this work, Les led us into another intimate space in the SQ Commons and showed us current explosions of another kind!  Very atmospheric, and generally involving cyclonic rotation of great tornado forms, the restrained energy that provides for such systematic creation as the stencil cut outs, expresses itself in bursts of motion, light, darkness and colour.

Les Pinter Cycone Series: 2014 (sic) Photo Credit: Bart Habermiller

Thank you for your artist talk, Les.  It was an honour to hear about your process first-hand.