Clare Walker Leslie

Clare is an independent professional artist/naturalist/educator with 11 books under her name and numerous exhibitions of painitngs. Since l971, she has been following her own path as a naturalist, (former musician and former art teacher), using both word and image to teach, understand, translate, interpret the land where she lives. She has taught in 29 different states, travelled to numerous countries (most recently Africa), raised several children, managed a marriage and various pets, and tended several homes. She lives in a small apartment in Cambridge, MA and in and out of an old farmhouse and land in Granville, Vermont.

Conversations:

• Your dentist is a naturalist

Workshops:

• Natural History & Society

Clare Walker Leslie: We have this impression that the naturalist is out in the steppes of Mongolia pursuing esoteric butterflies. And you may not think that your dentist is a naturalist. But what I love so much is that everywhere I go, you can't talk about politics, you can't talk about religion, but you can talk about nature. Whether I'm in an airport drawing and somebody comes up and says, "Oh, I love to go fishing with my grandson!" It's the recognition that we're all naturalists. To me, that's the problem with the word 'natural history.' It freezes it in the past.