My family lived in Louisville, Kentucky when I was a child. My roots are deep there; my younger brother died during that time and is buried there. I still have family members and loved ones living in and around Louisville, and have spent wonderful time there over the years. I’m a Marylander, but parts of my heart will always be in a few other places. And Lousiville will always be one of those places.
A few years ago I learned about an artist named Alexander Van Leshout. A bookbinder friend happened to be binding a collection of drawings made by him around Louisville nearly a century ago. His pen and ink style is disciplined but beautiful, a truly delightful find in this digital age. I also found to my surprise that Van Leshout is virtually unknown today even in Louisville, except by a few local historians. Soon after seeing his work I began photographing some of the places he had drawn, and juxtaposing his drawings with my photos. It’s an unfinished project; so many of his subjects have disappeared I don’t know if an idea like this can ever be finished. But I wanted to share some of his work here on my website.
And so I’ve added two new menu items. One is a changeable gallery of photos from all categories called “Pot luck” that also will include some images not in any of the other galleries. My “Louisville then and now” project is linked in the regular menu and below. The pages couldn’t be made to display at an adequate size on this site, so will open in a new window as an Issuu.com publication. After clicking once on the magazine, the pages can be super-sized by clicking again so you can view them in detail. Enjoy!
issuu.com/denniscrews/docs/louisville-then-and-now
Dennis your work never ceases to amaze me even through the eyes of other artist. I loved the black and white photos as they bring a different light to the things we see everyday. Thanks for sharing.
I am a curator working with Preservation Louisville to mount an exhibition of Van Leshout’s “Odd Corners of Louisville” to be paired with contemporary views of the same locations. Please contact me.
Alexander Van Leshout was my great-grandfather’s art teacher and good friend. My artist grandfather (Richard Alexander Paulmann, now 80) was partially named after Van Leshout. Our family has some fifty works (paintings, prints and drawings) of the late artist. Additionally, I have two turn of the century photo albums that document some of Van Leshouts travels. His artistic influence on my heritage has been enormous. I am an art teacher at Ballard High School and my oldest son Nicholas is on a full tuition art scholarship at WKU. The artistic lineage of Alexander Van Leshout is alive and well.