Leslie Smith has always had a passion for art and craft. Art was her favorite class, even in grade school. She created many things for friends and family and designed the family Christmas cards. During her sophomore year in high school, she interned at a graphic arts studio and redesigned her high school yearbook logo. In her junior year of high school she attended a six-week-long intensive workshop at the Parson's School of Design in New York .

Her passion for art was put on hold during college and graduate school where she obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California . While working as a postdoctoral fellow in California in a basic cancer research lab, she took classes in metalsmithing, silk painting, and lampwork bead making at local art studios. She became friends with Shirley Webster, a well known fused glass artist, and spent large amounts of time in Shirley's studio in Pasadena , California . There Leslie experimented with incorporating techniques from other arts into fused glass.

In 2000, she moved from California to Maryland to work at the University of Maryland in a basic cancer research lab. She moved into the funky Baltimore neighborhood of Hampden – made famous by John Waters in his offbeat movies such as “Hairspray” and “Pecker”. Hampden is home to the Baltimore “Hon”; a 50's style lady with an oversized beehive hairdo and cat's eye glasses who speaks “Balmerese”, the local Maryland dialect. This quirky character has become the basis for Leslie's art. Leslie works in a wide variety of media, from silver and precious metal clay to paint and fused glass. All of her work is rendered in bright happy colors: magenta, lime green, yellow, orange and bright blue.

Most of Leslie's artwork is functional. Her most popular pieces are switch plate covers with renderings of local monuments and typical Baltimore rowhouses. Switch plate “Hon”s feature large beehive hair dos that extend above the switch plate and feature rhinestone embellished glasses. One of Leslie's Hon switch plates was accepted to a juried show entitled “Too Funny for Words” at the Artforms gallery in Manayunk , Pennsylvania . Also popular are her mirrors with beehive hairdos with signs in “Balmerese” saying “Lookin' Bootifal, Hon!” and “Bawlmer's Best Hon”. Leslie's hand painted Christmas and Chanukah ornaments have been featured in Style Magazine and in The Baltimore Sun”. At art shows Leslie dresses as a 50's style “Hon” and was interviewed in costume on the Maryland public television show “ArtWorks This Week”.

Recently, she has been expanding her line to reach a larger audience. She has created new switch plates featuring the architecture and landmarks of each region in which her shows are held. Her beehive mirrors feature signs such as “Queen Bee” or “Princess”. Her whimsical “Hon” character, however, is not simply a Baltimore icon. Most people can remember someone in their family, a mother, an aunt or a grandmother, who sported the beehive do and wore cat's eye glasses.

Owning Leslie's art, it's hard not to turn on a light or look in a mirror without smiling.