The Art For Healing Winners Exhibition

Once I started with my first piece “Aqui Solito” the “ReSURFace” series was born. This series is my most beloved because of what it took for me to produce it and most importantly how it set my soul on fire! I cannot stop producing now because I switched my mental state into seeing the opportunities and possibilities and use my creative process as a form of meditation to soothe my soul and appease my hyperactive creative glands. 

In most of the art you will find hidden items or faces, this is from a study I did on Pareidolia, the science behind seeing faces in things, like coral or rocks in my work. I use it as a tool to connect with the viewer in an effort to give my art a little more worth. Usually I will include some words or initials or graffiti into each piece to give it a “wow factor!” My art is more than meets the eye. 

3rd Place Artist of the "Art of Healing": Leah Newton

As an artist, I love having the ability to take a moment and freeze it in time on canvas in a way that continues to feel like it is a living tangible moment.  I go into the natural world and seek out a magical relationship with light and how it is reflected in or on its environment.  I take a photograph of this moment and then reproduce it so that you may find yourself feeling like you are in that experience, witnessing it for the first time.  I strive to capture details and colors that created the energy I was connected to when I first experienced the moment.  I enjoy the challenge of working with acrylic paints in order to create movement on my canvas.  

I believe art only really requires the desire to create and believing you can.  My personal goal is to change this often heard statement, “I am not creative.” I believe we are all creative in some capacity. While I may not be a gifted singer, (actually I have a degree in dance and I love to paint but please do not ask me to sing ) but I am a creative person because I am a human.  As humans, we have the ability to imagine, and create, and innovate. We need architects, doctors, inventors, landscapers – all kinds of people, in all kinds of careers, to think creatively.  Being creative is not just about drawing and painting.  It is about bringing something new into being that you made from your personal vision.  I love being able to give my students this gift of confidence.