Reception Set for FACES Artist

By now you've probably already seen FACES, the exhibit at Zume's Coffeehouse that's been on display for most of the summer.

But this weekend you'll get a chance to meet the artist at a public reception. Leslie Aisner, who says her work was inspired by her experience of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will be at the cafe from 3 to 5 p.m.

Her FACES drawings began as a slow trickle -- faces with no names, each unique, drawn on scraps of paper and other surfaces starting in late 2001, according to a press release.

By the time the Newburyport-based artist took stock of her drawings, they were pouring out of her –- literally -- by the hundreds. 

Aisner was in New York City on 9/11, visiting her daughter and family in Brooklyn when the tragedy struck. When they could take the first subway out of Brooklyn to East Union Square, Aisner witnessed the many black and white Xeroxed photos of those lost posted all over lower Manhattan.

“FACES began to appear while doodling on smalls pads of yellow lined school paper when I returned home to Newburyport,” she said.

“The thoughts of those black and white posters remained on my mind, and I felt compelled to color between the lines. It’s not about actual faces… it’s really the color, texture and lines that presented themselves to me. There is so much color to our lives…who we are, our work, our passions, our relationships. Every bit of us is color. Collectively, FACES is a colorful city unto itself.”