ARTIST STATEMENT
With the challenges of our current cultural, political, economic and environmental climate I began to reflect on the relevancy of my earlier work noticing its increasing importance to our present day. A lot has happened since the start of 2020 from the known battles throughout society to our own personal struggles hidden behind closed doors.
It’s often the obstacles we overcome in our private life that can be the most challenging and the most impactful. At times in life, there are days we may want to curl up in a ball sobbing our way to serenity and at other moments letting it out through a piercing scream up and into the heavens. Some deal with their personal conflicts by relying on a familiar crutch, visiting them like an old friend in their loneliest moments, helping to numb their pain, relieve their anxiety, and subdue their regrets. Others have begun repairing themselves through all of this. Picking up the scattered bits on the floor and putting their life back together again. Piece by piece they remember how whole and complete they once were.
We all have our own way of dealing with trauma and when we make it to the other side we will be stronger and more beautiful than we ever imagined. Like the trees in the fall, sometimes we have to lose our leaves to appreciate the blooming of the spring.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Leigh Brooklyn was born in 1987 outside of Cleveland, Ohio where she first entered the arts through a series of drawn surreal self-portraits. She earned her degree in Biomedical Illustration from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2011. Brooklyn worked with several hospitals, museums, and research facilities including the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Case Western Reserve University.
In 2011 Brooklyn began moving throughout the US gaining inspiration from individuals she met through pursuing street photography. This led her to switch her focus back to figurative art. In 2019 Brooklyn began learning techniques for sculpture, fabrication and welding, earning her lifetime certification in 3G MIG welding. After a personal upheaval in late 2019 Brooklyn narrowed her focus toward women empowerment in her series titled, the “Women’s Militia.”
Brooklyn has won countless awards for her art since 2004. She was a semi-finalist for Figurtivas at the MEAM in Barcelona, Spain, and a winner in the International Boynes Emerging Artist Awards in Melbourne, Australia. Her work has been displayed at galleries, museums, and art fairs across the country including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Makeshift Museum in Los Angeles, The Medici Museum of Art, the U.S. Capitol Building and Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.
© Leigh Brooklyn