Leah Kiser

Casa Grande, AZ

This is a collection of large scale playful illustrations painted in a realistic style. I feel like I should say something profound or serious here, but the pieces do not have a collective message or agenda. I didn't paint them to be profound and serious. I made these paintings because they bring me joy and I hope to bring good feelings to others through them. At this time, I cannot seem to get excited to paint subjects that don't make me laugh, and I'm thankful to have found an audience that enjoys them enough to hang them on their walls. ​ To prepare for these paintings, (in addition to practicing for years to gain the skill to paint realistically) I let my mind wander and let images come to me. When these images make me laugh out loud or make me think “I’ve never seen anything like that before” then there is a good chance they will strike others in a "I don't know why this exists, but I'm glad that it does" kind of way. I like when art catches me off guard like that - Like a dance choreographed by Paul Taylor, or a Monty Python skit... others seem to enjoy it too - watching viewers do a double take and laugh out loud is one of my favorite things about painting this way. ​ I began painting with this balance of realism and illustration because I couldn't decide between the two. The things I love about illustration are the styles and colors and the smart compositional tricks illustrators use to guide the eye and convey a mood or story without words. I like trying them out in my paintings. But details also call to me. I use photographs or objects as visual references, and they help me capture perspective, lighting, and form, while trying to maintain the life and spark of the original imagined idea. It is a challenging balance between observing and imagining. This spectrum between realism and illustration leads to variability and experimentation in my work. It adds another dimension of play that you'll likely see more of from me in the future.