Self Portrait, 2021
Art-making has always been part of my life, in one way or another. I'm interested in colors and shapes, and the stories that images tell us.
As an undergraduate, I studied art history. I loved pieces from all around the world and every era in history. The German Expressionist movement was a favorite, with their bright swirling colors and lofty manifestos. But I also love early dutch art and their shimmering, detailed daily-life scenes, and American realism in the early 1900s. And so many others from all the eras and places.
My love of images isn't limited to paintings. I was an avid reader as a kid and was always happy when books were decorated with simple ink illustrations at the beginnings of chapters, and now and then the joy of finding a full page illustration tucked into the text. I would read anything that Quentin Blake had illustrated, and who doesn't find joy in Ernest Shepherd's illustrations of Winnie-the-Pooh? And then there's the old-timey charm of Lois Lensky's illustrations in the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. Again, the full list here would be a long one.
I didn't make much of a connection between the bold colors and dramatic history of painting and the beloved line-drawing illustrations until I had been working in collage for a while. I started off, as I think most collagists do, with magazine illustrations. But as I got more serious about my craft, I found myself turning to old discarded children's books for source materials. I love the feel of the older paper and the way they hold paint. I like letting the text on the pages show through and invite the characters to leave their stories and come play in my collages for a bit.
I want my art to feel fun. Magical. Alive. I want it to have movement and to spark your imagination. I want it to have details that, when you notice them, you feel like you've put together the pieces of a puzzle, and now share in a secret. I want you to feel like you've stumbled into a story, where something has happened and something will happen, even if you don't know what.
Here, on my website, I'm sharing with you what I've been making lately. I invite you to peek into some of my sketchbooks where I relax and play with images. I've also shared some pieces that were done as part of online challenges, that keep me on my toes. And then there's Jinivar—the world I built as a Christmas present for my family but that has opened up new avenues of expression for me, combining collage in varied styles with accompanying mini stories that I send out into the world as postcards.
I hope you enjoy my work.
- Leah