LES BAUM BIO
Additional Information
Leslie Baum is a native New Yorker, born on the 4th of July 1949.
Working in a variety of industries, Baum honed his technical skills in many different crafts. As a young man, he worked in the garment industry as a pattern cutter and as a technician making fine surgical instruments at a foundry in Queens. With the renovation boom of the 1980s, Baum was a painter and plasterer in many of Soho and Tribeca lofts, artist studios, and apartments throughout New York. As a bartender in places as high-end as the Rainbow Room, to historic neighborhood pubs in Soho and Tribeca, Baum perfected his martini, Manhattan, and margarita.
Not one to stay put, Baum trained as a television camera operator, and for the last twenty-five years has worked for the Food Network, CBS, Yahoo, CNN, among others, on jib and ped cameras for live and taped programming.
Baum’s other interests led him to play drums in the late 1970s and 1980s in bands such as Coup d’etat, Mildred Pierce, EQ2, and others. He was also a member of the award-winning Cucaracha Theater Company, appearing in many productions, including the weekly Underground Soap.
As a teenager, Baum trained in various martial arts earning black belt degrees in Goju karate and Aikido. He has also trained in Ving Tsun.
Leslie spent his childhood exploring the Catskill Mountains near Phoenicia, NY. The land, bisected by streams and stands of trees, continually changing with the seasons, made an impression. This love of the mountains stayed with him and was rekindled when he and his wife Emily purchased a home in Columbia County, NY, in 2001.
The Baums founded Taconic Trading Company, a home-based business for recipes of Hickory and Cherrywood Smoked Sea Salt and Roasted Flavored Pumpkin Seeds that sold at Columbia County’s thriving farmer’s markets.
On the home front, Baum has used his many construction skills to renovate and restore the HDFC homestead, where he and Emily maintain an apartment in the East Village and the home in upstate New York.
His many skills and knowledge of the woods have served him well in creating the Natural Sculptural works.
His first exhibit, Earth Elements: Unearthed, was seen at the Hillsdale NY Arts Walk in August 2016 and 2018. He exhibited work in 2020 at Flea 99 in Canaan, CT. His works are in the private collections of Lucia Bigelow-Castro, Jonovan Diamond, the Horstmann Foundation, the Dixon-Naclerio Trust, the Marx-Lee Family, Stephen Marlow, The Sack Family, and others.
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