Artisan

PHIL HAGEN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN WEBER, RADIANT PHOTOGRAPHY, INC.

>>> Leslie Rowland, Habitat Design Studios, Las Vegas, Nevada

One chapter of Leslie Rowland's life had her in the Himalayas studying the impact of tourism. In the next, she was doing pretty much the exact opposite: re-creating natural environments in a place built on tourism — Las Vegas.

A series of "flukes" prompted the ironic transition of a budding scientist from Evergreen State College to this Mojave Desert's glitzy boomtown. But, in a final fluke, it wasn't the urban ecology business idea, Habitat Design Studios, that kept her here for 12 years. Go figure: Las Vegas wasn't ready to support a wildlife garden designer. "It was a hard sell," she admits.

No, it was in the next chapter where everything came together. She kept the name of her operation, but instead of building backyard environments for tortoises and butterflies, Rowland began turning vintage furniture and found objects into fine art. "I just sort of branched out," she says.

To know she's always been an artist helps explain the insouciant shift from outdoor science to indoor art, but it all makes sense when you see how her life's passions get channeled into her work. Whether an old artillery shell, door or nightstand, each piece reflects the unique synergy between the character of the object she's collected, whatever paint she's rounded up and the mood she's in. Those first two aspects of her creations are always secondhand (the third can be, too, if you count her fascination with the 1950s), but all that goes into her art furniture comes out a true, earth-friendly original.

A corner table embellished with images of Marilyn Monroe.

Like her twin end tables, "The Fathers of My Country," salvaged mid-century pieces etched with lines of Beat poetry. One features the words and mugs of Ginsberg and Kerouac, the other of Corso and Burroughs. Like her other finds, the end tables were repaired and restored, then, through a regimen of glazes and rubs, aged again. Along the way come such embellishments as decoupage and the embedding of tiny round mirror tiles.

This time, Habitat Design is an easy sell. "People like the idea of art in an unexpected place," Rowland says. "And they like the philosophy, the irony — the unexpected messages in the furniture."

"The Fathers of My Country," end tables etched with lines from Beat poets.

No, you wouldn't expect to see a wooden chair artfully covered with steel washers and an Emerson quote. Or a "whine" buffet (a converted merlot-colored dresser) containing wisdoms from both Homer of The Odyssey and Homer of The Simpsons. Or an antique ironing board with pick-up lines (overheard during her early Vegas bartending days) adorning someone's wall. Or a panel door with Sanskrit symbols, lessons on happiness and a title of "Remembering the Himalayas."

Obviously Rowland thought these were good ideas. What was unexpected to her was how good they'd seem to others.

"I'm pleased that people like it," she says, "but kind of taken aback by how much attention the furniture has received. I'm so close to it. It's mine, it comes out of my head. So a part of me doesn't think it's that big of a deal, because I don't think I could stop if I wanted to."

"Remembering the Himalayas" panel door.

When it comes to commission work, though, Rowland sometimes has to draw the line. "I don't want to hire an army of people to make my furniture," she says. "I'm one person and I like it that way."

While moving into a studio in the Arts District will help her productivity, and the Artspace gallery in Las Vegas' World Market Center has boosted her exposure, it's also about her branching out again. This time the chapter is about abstract painting, which she's been heavily into since dreaming up "a brand-new medium."

A "whine" buffet contains the wisdom of Homer of The Odyssey and Homer Simpson and sports decorative artillery shells.

Titles such as "Panacea" or "GRRRRR" are clues to the range of deep-rooted issues she's working through during her painting sessions. While she can't solve the environmental crisis or the Iraq war from her studio in Las Vegas, "I'm putting some good energy into the works and feel like I'm passing it on — like maybe people can pick up on that. It sounds cheesy, but I think of them like wishes or prayers in a way," she says.

On the surface, what clients like about the contemporary reliefs is "the color, shine and form they take," Rowland says. What she likes about them is the freedom.

"I love doing the furniture, but it is so controlled and planned; it can be very tedious," she says. "With these paintings, my subconscious takes over. It's very organic. It gives balance to my whole artistic being."

Leslie Rowland, Las Vegas, Nevada; (702) 306-4138 or www.lrowlandart.com and habitatdesignstudios.com.