Leigh Brooklyn
Leigh Brooklyn was born outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Brooklyn enrolled into the Columbus College of Art and Design. Later she transferred to The Cleveland Institute of Art after being inspired by the work of forensic artists who helped in a missing-person’s case. There she earned her degree in Biomedical Illustration. Brooklyn worked with several hospitals, museums, and research facilities including the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, The Cleveland Botanical Gardens, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Case Western Reserve University.
Q&A
What's the purpose or goal of your work?
I want to help change the narrative for how women are viewed particu- larly in art, which I hope will carry over to our broader society.
How can your work affect societal issues?
I’ve researched the history of women in art. The roles women have been expected to take on and it really doesn’t seem like too much has changed. I think a powerful work of art can get the viewers’ attention and raise questions that force the viewer to think deeper about some- thing they may not have paid much attention to pior.
How do you navigate the professional art industry?
There is a lot that goes into being an artist, far beyond what the typical viewer or art appreciator realizes. There’s a lot of time management between the various tasks beyond painting. I apply to lots of things and one thing tends to lead to another. There’s a lot of luck involved in “making it” as an artist, meeting the right person at the right time so it’s important to create as many opportunities as possible for that to happen and to go with your gut instincts, they’re usually right.
Which art trends inspire your current work?
I love the renaissance works, the old cathedrals full of paintings and sculptures, the realism and anatomy takes my breath away. At the same time, I’m equally inspired by the grittiness of a city full of street art. I like to combine the two.
How has your style changed over time?
When I was a teen I did a lot of surreal self-portrait drawings. I’ve al- ways been inspired by the figure and anatomy which carried over even to me as I studied Biomedical Illustration and illustrated anatomy and even some surgical procedures. I then moved around the country and
began pursuing street photography in downtown Los Angeles, meet- ing, interviewing and doing on the spot photoshoots with the models I casted. This environment I think drew me more into the street art and adding that to my work. I began painting individuals in these urban en- vironments and began adding elements of graffiti to my work. I focused a lot on marginalized individuals but after a personal upheaval in late 2019 I geared my focus more toward portraying strong women and at same time began painting graffiti onto inert grenades creating my love bomb series which I’ve now shown all over the country. I’d like to tie back into the surreal work that I started with, there’s a big part of me that misses that.
What are your favorite and least favorite parts of professional art?
There is nothing like creating work that fuels your soul, taking some- thing your passionate about and making it into this tangible thing for others to experience. Being an artist is an extension of the person, it’s not something separate. Being able to create these awe inspiring works and seeing your ideas realized – there’s nothing like it.
Some of my least favorite parts of the art are the times when you’re told to produce a specific number of works in a specific time frame. The commerciality can sometimes take away the essence of the work. I think you can feel it when someone has poured their all into a work of art vs just trying to get something done. A lot of artists become fo- cused on making something fast, something decorative, something that will sell, and it becomes less about the meaning behind each piece. There’s also a lot to be said about the high-end art market and the reasons certain works sell for the price they sell at. This takes away from the reason so many become artists to begin with. There are still so many real artists out there, and not just visual, you can see it in music. You can feel it when a real musician is on stage playing a song they
wrote with and performing it with their whole soul as opposed to a cover band doing the same song. There’s no comparison.
Do you have a network of other artists, and how do they support you?
I have been blessed to have made so many friends in the arts over the last few years. We’ve all reached out to each other for advice and have sent each other shows to apply to and have invited each other into shows. I’m so grateful to all of them and the support I continue to receive from them.
Is there a specific environment or material that's integral to your work?
I’m a multidisciplinary artist and I continue finding myself being more drawn to sculpture. I think part of it is the anatomy of the figurative sculptures. It’s something that can’t be faked. With painting someone can shade an area dark that is dark on their model or reference. They don’t need to know why there’s a shadow there. In sculpture the light and angles are constantly changing, and it can’t be faked, you have to know what is going on. I also love how on three-dimensional work the story can change as you walk around and experience the piece. An example of this is the Sleeping Hermaphroditus at the Louvre where your perception of the work changes as you move.
What factors influence the price of your work?
Influences on price of course take into account things like cost of mate- rials but also time. How long did it take to create a piece, as well as the prestige of the work, has it won countless awards and what’s the story behind the work? It’s not always about the size, some small works are extremely valuable.
What are your ultimate career goals?
I’d like to help change the way women are viewed in the arts as both the subject of the work and the artist. I would love to have my work in major museum collections and get to the point where I have the plat- form and the finances from my work to make a difference. We’re only here so long and it’s important to give back if we’re blessed enough to be in such a position.
How do you manage a work-life balance as an artist?
I definitely struggle with the work-life balance, not sure when I had a day where I didn’t work in some way, but I try to take small moments to enjoy things, perhaps going for a walk and having a nice lunch after a long drive to deliver art or stopping to play the piano. I’ve been becom- ing more selective as to whom I give my time to and spend more time
with my closest family and friends.
Describe your ideal working environment.
My ideal working environment would be near or close to home so I could get in the studio right away without a drive. Somewhere where I can work 24/7 as I tend to be a night owl to the extreme. I usually have music, podcasts and audio books that I’m listening to. I’ve worked in places that have no heat and it would be wonderful to have a place that is fully climate controlled with great ventilation and great light.
How has your education helped you in your career?
I think through majoring in biomedical illustration I really learned about the anatomy and not just the superficial muscles but everything. I have such an appreciation for the human form at this point. I also really honed my digital skills in the Adobe software which has been incred- ibly helpful. And I learned how far I could push myself, through most of college in the biomedical illustration major I only slept every third day most the way through and sometimes going longer without sleep. There was just so much work between taking anatomy and upper-level science courses, and then learning the surgeries and trying to get the whole thing illustrated or animated, plus all the other classes- it was a lot. Although that’s not the healthiest lifestyle, I know I could go to that if I needed to. I learned to have grit. There may be other artists that are better or better equipped financially than me, but they won’t outwork me. And that work ethic has even helped me getting through other chal- lenging times in my life where there is no choice but to sink or swim.
What are your most valued skills as an artist?
I have a lot of technical skills in different mediums but a lot of that can be learned. Having creativity, an eye for it, and grit are everything. A natural inclination toward something plus hard work gets you skill, and skill plus hard work can get you success. But thinking natural skill equals success is a fallacy.
What was your first experience of working as a professional art- ist?
I started entering a lot of juried shows in my teens and had business cards and started getting some commissions. It’s hard to pinpoint my first experience as a professional artist, partly because I switched ca- reers working as a scientific illustrator for different hospitals and re- search facilities. I do remember clearly when I first knew I could be an artist. After winning my first national award as a teen and seeing New York City, the art world, and my work displayed amongst the top teen artists in the US all at once for the first time – that really gave me the push.
What is the best advice you have received in your career?
I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of technical art advice in school and with mentors but not really career advice. I didn’t grow up in a family that went to galleries or museums and they’re not all entrepreneurs. Most of my family is either farmers or factory workers and my exposure to the arts was what I saw at the fairgrounds. Very little of my family went to college. So a lot of what I learned was from reading books. I especially love audiobooks. I love hearing the stories of those who made it. A family friend did tell me though after I had to completely restart my life about 5 years ago that I would be the one to make it all happen and that nobody was coming to save me. That was both scary and extremely motivating. There is no bigger motivator than having your back against the wall and having to get scrappy to figure it out.
Has the press or media ever mentioned your artwork?
Ive gotten quite a bit of press for my work since I was a teen but even more so since around 2020. Ive been on the news on magazine covers and features. I look for this to continue and grow into even bigger news and media outlets.
Describe a piece of art you are most proud of. Why?
Growing up with virtually no exposure to the artworld. I would look at the magazines that came in the mail. There was one that came where you could buy tacky garden gnomes and horrible art reprints. But one time there was a painting on the cover. It was of flowers and fruit in this landscape. I decided to copy the painting for my school project and give the piece to my mom as a gift for Mother’s Day. It looked just like the one on the magazine. My art teacher without my knowledge entered the piece into the local Scholastics Art and Writing Awards and I won an American Vision best of show. I was shocked that I won and also wor- ried because I copied this painting. The piece was then headed to New York for National judging, and I was worried that I would get in trouble. I won a silver in the American Vision best of show category and again I was shocked and even more worried. I felt both that maybe I had a shot at the art thing and secondly that I would get sued for copyright infringement of this historical painting. I withdrew my award and said next year I would be back to and would put the effort in this time.
I bought a book on how to draw realistic portraits from photographs in graphite and drew the entire book front to back till I had it down. In class we were talking about juxtapositioning and I decided to create a surreal self-portrait. After a student mentioned someone dying in a drunk driv- ing accident, I wanted to create a piece about that so I photographed myself drinking from a bottle with another pic of myself floating inside the bottle. I drew this and it was titled, Drinking Her Life Away. That
next year I won best of show again and my piece was headed to New York City again, only this time I won Gold in the Best of Show American Vision Category. My mom scrounged up the money for me and her to go to the awards ceremony that year.
I had never been to New York before, and my eyes lit up. I went on stage at Carnegie Hall, we received our medals, I felt like an Olympi- an. I realized that most the kids in line to get their awards were from private art schools, but I was still there. I saw the Metropolitan, the Guggenheim, and Sotheby’s. I didn’t even know what Sotheby’s was at the time. There was our opening at Diane Von Furstenberg’s stu- dio in Greenwich, the one I had seen one time in a Vogue magazine with the stairs over the water and Andy Warhol artworks of Liz Taylor. Photographers were walking around and others with the trays of food. I had never seen anything like this before. The whole experience of seeing my work there amongst the top young artists meant everything. It meant I had a shot, regardless of where I came from. That drawing, Drinking Her Life Away, means everything. It started everything for me. I went on to win countless awards after that throughout high school, winning again at nationals for that juried show and for other national juried shows as well, going to DC and even meeting the senator.
