ARTIST STATEMENT
I create collages, layering traditional art materials and processes with up-cycled materials, product packaging, deconstructed artwork and appropriated images, balancing areas of structure and flow, destruction and rebuilding. I also create ephemeral environmental art with chalk, paint, natural forms, and repurposed items. I have been exhibiting my work regionally and nationally since the 1990s. Currently I’m creating small compositions on paper, wood, canvas, and tile inspired by themes of transformation, resilience, mental health, identity, class bias, social justice, and women’s issues.
Images in my work include plants, insects, metaphysical symbols, pop culture references, architectural and figurative elements. Materials, processes, and text converge on the surface, analogous to the images, symbols, and text we decode daily. Through visual storytelling I hope viewers engage with my work and bring their own stories to the process of connecting with my images.
The UPC label on my work has the number 46137, my name in numeric form upside down, an identifier acknowledging the prevalence of commodification and a visible watermark to protect my artwork.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Leigh Roche is a mixed media artist residing in Pittsburgh, PA.
Leigh is a sustainable artist, writer, and educator. Through drawings, storytelling, symbols, textured surfaces, and text her practice transforms images, everyday materials, and narrative rooted in themes of identity, social justice, feminism, memory, and self-expression.
Her work has been exhibited regionally and nationally: AIR Gallery, Ceres Gallery, Randolph Street Gallery, CBGBs 313 Gallery, Michael Stone Collection, Women’s Studio Workshop, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Brew House Space, and Duquesne University. She was a recipient of a Heinz Endowment grant for her environmental installation for Aliquippa Embraces Art. She has studied at The Art Students League, holds a fine arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a masters degree in arts in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her artwork and murals are in many private residences and collections.
As an artist educator, Leigh has facilitated learning experience in schools, museums, and community education for over 30 years. She has also created ephemeral environmental installations and collaborative community works of art. Areas of interest include imagination and creativity, symbolic development, and cognition and art. Leigh is committed to honoring art and aesthetic education as integral to learning, self-empowerment, social justice, and community. When she is not teaching or making art, she enjoys yoga, cooking, gardening, spending time with her adult children and husband, and living sustainably on their micro-farm.
© Leigh Roche