Lesley Dill’s Poetic Visions: From Shimmer to Sister Gertrude Morgan

Lesley Dill is one of the most prominent artists working at the intersection of language and art. Experimenting with a wide range of tactile materials, she fuses poetry and images to create evocative mixed-media artworks and performances.

Inspired by her two-year sojourn in India and the illuminating aspects of diverse faith traditions, Dill interprets relationships between the physical and the spiritual. Her expressive artworks, layered with multiple meanings, also reference nature and human identity.

This book focuses on two bodies of the artist’s work: metallic sculptures such as Shimmer and the drawing-and-textile based installation, Encountering Sister Gertrude Morgan, which interprets the life of the New Orleans missionary and folk artist. Unified by layers of words, figures, and symbolic imagery, the artworks underline Dill’s desire to render transcendental experience into form.