Leslie is known for her encaustic wax style of painting. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1974 from the California College
of Arts and Crafts, & a Master's Degree in Painting from New York University in 1980.
After living in New York City for 14 years
and teaching art at St. John's University at Queens, she moved to the small fishing village of Aripeka on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.
There began the most visibly dramatic phase of her transformation as an artist.