Western Libraries hosting 'Paper Scissors Rock' through Sept. 15

A new art exhibit entitled “Paper and Scissors Rock!” by Leslie Hall is now on display in Western Libraries Gallery 1, located at the end of the Mann Family Skybridge. This exhibit will remain on display through Sept.15,  and is available for viewing during the hours the library is open.  

Hall’s art has previously exhibited in other venues, including the Murray-Goltz Archives Building lobby and reading room, the annual WWU Employees Arts and Crafts Show, and Western’s Small Business Development Center conference room.

Hall has been interested in art since she was a child, and throughout her life she has worked with a variety of mediums, including batik, silkscreen, and fiber.

“What I like to do is play with color, shape and texture using various kinds of papers, pens, gouache, scissors and glue,” Hall explains in her artist’s statement. “I might start out with a small idea from something I have seen or read that in some way hooks me. Other times I doodle or mess around with paper scraps and see what happens. I try to show what positive energy might look like, be it of the natural or spiritual world, and to create a sense of the place it inhabits.”

In addition to being an artist, Hall is also a full-time staff member of Western Libraries. In 2006, she committed to spending as much of her free time as possible to creating art, mainly working with paper, and this current exhibit shows some of that work. At the end of July and after a 31–year career at Western Libraries, Hall will retire and will have even more time to devote to her art.

Hall first began working in the library in 1982 as a temporary cataloger, and then returned as a full-time employee in 1986.  She has since worked in the Music Library, and at Western Libraries in interlibrary loan and also in cataloging. Hall was also a founding member of the library’s Art Exhibits Committee, which formed in 2009 and began exhibiting in 2011. Currently, the library has four art galleries, which showcases the art of faculty, staff, students and community members. In addition to her many contributions during her time at Western Libraries, Hall is also leaving Western a legacy she helped create of ensuring that there will always be a place for art in the library.

 For more information about art exhibits at Western Libraries, please see: https://library.wwu.edu/exhibits_art. For questions or comments about Hall’s art, you can contact her via email at: ha5ll@hotmail.com.