Profile

Educated at the University of North Texas (BfA) and an associated program developed by Web guru Jeffrey Zeldman and New York's Pratt School of Design, Leslie Lee is based in Dallas, Texas. As Laughing Cat Arts, Leslie offers more than 15 years of experience in the design field and has fulfilled positions from art director to design consultant to muralist to HTML developer for clients such as Southern Methodist University, Jobs.com, John Roberts BMW, Centex, Lockheed-Martin, Phillip Morris, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Polypipe, King Architectural Metals, Sonic Training and many local organizations and individuals. Leslie is also available for consulting, telecommuting and traveling assignments.

Coming from a strong Fine Arts background, Leslie is influenced by the flat, graphic styles of artists such as Abstract Expressionist (sic), Mark Rothko, Japanese woodcut artists, Hokusai and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi , French Post-Impressionist, Henri Rousseau, English Illustrator, Aubrey Beardsley, and traditional religious Indian and Tibetan painting. She finds conceptual inspiration in the surreal and fantastical artwork of Salvidore Dali, the Bauhaus Movement, Man Ray, his pal Marcel Duchamp and other artists of the Dada Movement, the French Rococo Period and current artists of the Low Brow Genre. She is especially inspired and thankful to Ray Caesar, Jack Kerouac, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and juxtapoz; all of whom she routinely relies upon in times of creative block. As well, Leslie is eternally grateful for all of the support given to her by Katy Scott (the angry! cat), Doc Scott (our man of F.L.A.P.), Elaine Hewlett (danceuse deluxxe), James Bland (best rock 'n roll photographer ever), Clay Bartel (king of copy) and Mark Landson (modern classical composer and lover of all things bacon...err, Beethoven).

PS/PS MINI COOPER APB!!

One of the things that Leslie loves best is a swank lounge, a smooth piano and lots of swing music for dancing. She has learned to live on sawdust and evaded sleep for several years by renovating almost every room in her home simultaneously and has figured out a slick way to texture her living-room walls using a clean straw broom, a bit of water and a big pile of plaster. Driving her MINI Cooper lights her soul aglow and makes her wish she had a long rush-hour commute. You may have seen her tooling about town or touring the country roads in her pepper white Lucky 13.

Leslie dreams and lives in vibrant color.