The Brothers Cooney
Rolo with tinfoil hat, and Leigh, at home 2013
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The Brothers Cooney
Leigh and Rolo are globally collected Irish-born Canadian artists. Due to the self-taught nature of their paintings they have often been closely associated with the marginal artists known as "Outsiders." Shunning both the "Outsider" and "Fine-Art" labels, the Cooney Brothers consider themselves Neo-Folk artists.
Neither Leigh nor Rolo have formal training in the arts, preferring to experiment on the canvas. Despite being self-taught, Leigh is an accomplished full-time artist with paintings in galleries and private collections all over the world from South Africa to most American States and of course Canada. In 2010, after painting for only two years Leigh left his day job to dedicate his life to the arts.
Rolo is also self-taught but has only recently decided to take up painting as a way to deal with his Ochlophobia (the fear of groups of people) that often keeps him from leaving the house.
Paintings by both brothers are figurative and psychological in nature. For Leigh painting originally operated as therapy for dealing with his Attention Deficit Disorder and high anxiety. He was a chronically shy Irish immigrant and many of his paintings deal with feelings of childhood alienation, as well as the daily struggles involved in living with Attention Deficit Disorder. Both Leigh and Rolo draw heavily on pop culture for inspiration.
Click HERE to read Leigh's interview with Linda Rainaldi of the Canadian "Inside Outsider Art" Blog.
The short biography:
(For the full version please scroll down.)
Leigh was born in Dublin Ireland in 1981, and emigrated to Canada with his family in 1987. He dabbled in the arts throughout his life, but a failed high school art course prevented him from continuing on to art college. A lack of self confidence then prevented Leigh from creating any kind of art for the next 8 years.
In 2009, at the age of 27 Leigh bought some brushes and paint and proceeded to experiment with oil painting again. With the support of his wife, and the freedom that the internet provided, Leigh was able to quit his day job and dedicate himself to painting full time, selling the majority of his work via his website and various social media platforms. Leigh has now been painting as a career since September 2010, with the support of his lovely wife and a growing global fanbase. As of 2012 Leigh has been featured in a short documentary, as well as several art publications, and radio shows.
Neither Leigh nor Rolo have formal training in the arts, preferring to experiment on the canvas. Despite being self-taught, Leigh is an accomplished full-time artist with paintings in galleries and private collections all over the world from South Africa to most American States and of course Canada. In 2010, after painting for only two years Leigh left his day job to dedicate his life to the arts.
Rolo is also self-taught but has only recently decided to take up painting as a way to deal with his Ochlophobia (the fear of groups of people) that often keeps him from leaving the house.
Paintings by both brothers are figurative and psychological in nature. For Leigh painting originally operated as therapy for dealing with his Attention Deficit Disorder and high anxiety. He was a chronically shy Irish immigrant and many of his paintings deal with feelings of childhood alienation, as well as the daily struggles involved in living with Attention Deficit Disorder. Both Leigh and Rolo draw heavily on pop culture for inspiration.
Click HERE to read Leigh's interview with Linda Rainaldi of the Canadian "Inside Outsider Art" Blog.
The short biography:
(For the full version please scroll down.)
Leigh was born in Dublin Ireland in 1981, and emigrated to Canada with his family in 1987. He dabbled in the arts throughout his life, but a failed high school art course prevented him from continuing on to art college. A lack of self confidence then prevented Leigh from creating any kind of art for the next 8 years.
In 2009, at the age of 27 Leigh bought some brushes and paint and proceeded to experiment with oil painting again. With the support of his wife, and the freedom that the internet provided, Leigh was able to quit his day job and dedicate himself to painting full time, selling the majority of his work via his website and various social media platforms. Leigh has now been painting as a career since September 2010, with the support of his lovely wife and a growing global fanbase. As of 2012 Leigh has been featured in a short documentary, as well as several art publications, and radio shows.
Style and Subject Matter: in the artist's words
My artwork is of an overwhelmingly introspective nature. I don't find psychoanalytical theory a very interesting read, as the academic books can be largely overwhelming and generally feel too "conclusive" and by their nature don't encourage the reader to define their own processes of analyzation. I try to create paintings that are visual representations of my "armchair" psychological theories. Most often I touch on feelings of isolation and "outsiderness," as well as themes relating to self worth, atheism, religion, humanity, animal cruelty, the nature of art, and our inner struggle with moral ambiguity. And sometimes, I just paint hot dogs.
The most common psychological theme in my work is the metaphorical mask. The mask that we use in our attempts to fit in, or at the very least to obscure the fact that we don't. The mask we wear in the office, or on the factory floor. The mask we wear on the schoolground, in the food courts, and with the hockey team. The mask we wear even when we're alone. Behind these masks who are we? What do we want? Are we normal? Are we sick? Are we "different?" Are we gay, straight, lesbian, or transgendered? Do we just want to dress up as a teddy bear? Are we a janitor, a writer, a bus driver, or a politician? Maybe we're a priest, a congressperson, or the Prime Minister? Maybe you're my brother, my neighbour, my boss, or my real estate agent. What I care about is why you feel the need to wear this mask, and what hiding yourself does to you, and what kind of ripple effect hiding behind these masks has on our society as a whole? When we use our moral compass to say something is inherently wrong we cause people to dusguise that portion of themselves, and when that happens there is no way of telling where the release will come from and what form it will take. I don't claim to have any of the answers, but I do enjoy asking all the questions.
As a self taught artist I don't feel I know much about composition, or colours, or symbolism, so I work instinctually and I try first and foremost to take into consideration the "rhythm" of the painting. I'm more concerned with telling a story or asking a question than I am with becoming technically accomplished as an artist. I mix all my own colours from the primaries, and I only own five tubes of paint - from there I experiment until I get what I want. I believe the only difference between a good self taught artist and a classically trained artist is the self-taught artist, through experimentation and repetition, takes a lot longer to get to the same place.
Because patience is not one of my strong points (I suffer from a severe case of Adult ADHD) and because I have the attention span of a goldfish, I do not attempt to do related paintings in a series. Rather, I try to capture a single, and sometimes profound thought on canvas by temporarily blocking out all the static for a short period of time (someone once said that having ADHD is like having all the channels on the t.v. turned on at once, and I believe that sums it up expertly.) Once the painting is done I find it very difficult and forced, to attempt a piece that is related rather than moving on to another idea altogether. I think of my brain as a gumball machine. I put in a coin, turn the knob, and accept whatever colour gumball I get. When I want another gumball I don't expect to get the same colour, I don't even try, I just turn the knob and hope for the best. But after 7 or 8 turns I'm bound to get the same colour again, so I revisit an older idea when the inspiration strikes, be it days, weeks, or months later, until I eventually end up with a loosely related series of paintings. Therefore I look at my output like a giant mosaic where all the little pieces work together to make a whole. If you want to understand me, or my art, you must piece together the themes that I explore in each painting. Individually each piece tells a story and is meant to be appreciated alone, but as a whole the pieces come together to speak a grander truth.
Click HERE to read my response to a letter I received asking me about my "Self-Portrait with Gumball Machine."
Where do I get my ideas? I believe that life is like a series of autostereograms (remember Magic Eye?) Many people go through life not realizing that there is profound substance all around, one just needs to know how to adjust ones eyes to see it.
Once you learn the technique, you can see the magic in a comic strip, a television series, a derelict building, the chewing gum we got as kids from baseball cards, or Wacky Packages. You'll see it in Science Fiction, Children's Literature, Gordan Korman books, an old chimney, or a shimmering wheat field... and no amount of exhaustively detailed description will help someone who doesn't see the magic... they are either unwilling or unable, and will never be truly whole.
And how can you expect someone like this to appreciate that yes, great art is Da Vinci and Mark Ryden, but great art is also Henry Darger's Story of the Vivian Girls, or although great art is Bill Shakespeare, great art is also Bill Watterson and the deceiving simplicity of his Calvin and Hobbes comic strip?
You can't. You simply give a knowing smile, and shuffle on.
Want to know more? Ask me.
Influences
It was Jean michel Basquiat who inspired me to pick up painting originally, but I also site literary figures like Charles Bukowski, who actually influenced me to create visual art more than most visual artists. I wanted to paint the way Bukowski writes - gritty, honest, and with a complete lack of pretension. I was also inspired by cartoonists like "the Far Side's" Gary Larson, "Calvin and Hobbes" Bill Waterson, and underground comix artist John Pound of "Garbage Pail Kids" fame. My earliest and most lasting influences come from my dad (a talented woodcarver) as well as the British Beano, and Dandy comics that I was raised on. My most contemporary inspirations would be German artist Michael Sowa, Washington based artist Matt Sesow, and Cincinnati native, Tony Dotson. I am also influenced more broadly in colour and composition by late medeival and renaissance art.
Why Neo-Folk?
Generally I think art labels are restrictive and arbitrary, but it is with tongue in cheek that I use terms like Neo-Folk to describe my work because I feel it provides viewers with a sort of mental 'starting point' from which to approach my paintings. Let me put it this way, if you were a ballet fan and you went to see the latest rendition of the Nutckcracker, only to find the show was cancelled and replaced with a GG Allin performance, you might not be mentally prepared to appreciate the man once known as "the most spectacular degenerate in rock n' roll history."
Why "Neo-Folk?" It's simply Neo-Folk because much of my work reflects the relaxed approach to traditional guidelines that I find in medieval art, folk art, and most "outsider" art. It's Neo-Folk because I paint instinctually, rather than academically, putting shadows and proper perspective in when and where I feel they work best. Like most folk-art my work is "characterized by a naive style, in which traditional rules of proportio, perspective, and light source, are not employed." * One contemporary artist that I highly respect and consider to be an unofficial "Neo-Folk" artist himself, is Cincinnati native, Tony Dotson.
Since my work does not fit into the purist/Jean Dubuffet idea of what is "outsider art," I consider Neo-Folk to be a subdivision of "Neo-Outsider" art as coined by my friend, art collector, and art theorist, Dr. Melissa Westbrook.
The long Biography
Leigh Cooney was born in Dublin Ireland in 1981 to Irish mother Ethel Lee and English father Danny Cooney. Leigh has 3 brothers, one of which was also born in Ireland, one born in Australia, and one born in Canada. Ireland in the 1980's was a bleak time with some of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, and being English meant that Leigh's father had a tougher time finding a job than most, in some cases potential employers would openly discriminate against Dan as soon as his accent revealed his British background. In 1987 when Leigh was 6 years old the Family emigrated to Canada in search of a better life, eventually settling in the small Nova Scotia seaport town of Hantsport. Unfortunately finding dependable employment proved to be almost as hard in Nova Scotia as it was in Ireland, and for 5 years the family of 6 lived in near poverty.
Life wasn't easy for the Cooney family in Hantsport where the population barely topped 1000, and foreigners often felt like "outsiders." Leigh and his older brother dressed differently, and had foreign accents; bullying became a regular part of their lives. Leigh became increasingly shy and introverted, beginning a lifelong struggle with anxiety, especially in relation to his peers. At around the age of 10, Leigh started to get into trouble with the local police over minor infractions like vandalism and shoplifting. Unfortunately, being a "foreigner" with no real ties to the community meant that the bored small town police chief made it his personal pet project to make the family miserable.
To make himself feel more at home, Leigh immersed himself in British children's comics like the Dandy, Beano, Topper, and Beezer. At home he ate Irish food, but outside the house he quickly learned to mask his inherent "Irishness," starting with learning to talk with a Canadian accent, and to refer to things by their Canadian names.
With the encouragement of his parents Leigh became an avid reader, and started to dabble in the arts, emulating his favourite comic book artists from both the British comic strips, and the North American comics like Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, DC, Marvel, and the Archie comic books from various eras. The Hantsport years would have an indelible psychological effect on Leigh, eventually influencing not only his direction as an artist, but many of the big decisions in his life, for better or for worse.
In 1992 the family moved again, this time to the industry rich Kitchener Ontario, again in search of employment and a better future. Leigh was forced to make new friends, and bullying once again became a regular part of his life, forcing him to become even more withdrawn, and to find solace in literature, art, and music. At the age of 13, Leigh was introduced to punk music which would eventually change his life. In the world of Punk culture it seemed that to "fit-in" one simply had to "not fit in" anywhere else, something that would echo in his later sentiments on Outsider Art. In punk culture, being different was celebrated, and an interest in books, art, pop culture, and history was respected, and an abhorrence for the so called "Jock" culture that had excluded Leigh for so many years was encouraged.
High School, Basquiat, and the seeds of a career in Art
High School was a difficult time for Leigh due not only to the fact that he still struggled (albeit to a lesser degree) with bullying and alienation, but also because he found classroom learning difficult due to what he now describes as an "unrecognised case of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder," or ADHD. "Overall, my grades weren't too bad due I suppose to my interest in learning in general, but focusing in class was a struggle, and classroom life bored me. Unfortunately, although I was eager to teach myself to paint I never managed to finish a project, and I ended up failing my third year of art classes, making it impossible to get into fourth year and eventually art college."
Nevertheless, he utilized the art classroom after hours to experiment with oil painting. He finished three and a half paintings (selling one to a local business owner) before a lack of self confidence caused him to question his future as an artist and to quit painting. He wouldn't pick up a paint brush again for seven years. It was the discovery of the late New York Neo-Expressionist, Basquiat, that gave Leigh the confidence to attempt painting again. "At first I didn't particularly care for Basquiat, I preferred artists like Salvador Dali and Mark Ryden, that consistently displayed a very high skill-level. Years later though I realized that artists like Dali and Ryden, although great, were like the eye candy of the art world - sweet and sugary and easy to enjoy. But art like Basquiat's was like punk music on canvas, honest and gritty."
After nine years and dozens of jobs ranging from five years as an unskilled labourer, to fine dining waiter, to hotel desk clerk, Leigh once again picked up his brushes and started to paint - this time with less lofty expectations. Over the next two years Leigh would get married, buy a home and studio, and create hundreds of original oil paintings. Leigh's earliest paintings from this time period would reflect his frustration with his frenzied and feverish thought processes that had made it hard to function at work, learn in school, and focus on everyday conversations. It was, as Leigh describes it, "like missing an arm, but no one else besides you sees the this so they throw you three bowling pins and expect you to juggle. Than they don't understand why you can't manage it. It's an invisible disease, and it was a very tough 29 years."
During the first two years of creating art, Leigh would split his time between painting zealously and promoting himself. When in 2010 Leigh found himself unable to meet the demand for paintings he realized it was time to make a life changing decision; with the support of his wife he quit his day job to commit himself full-time to painting as a career... for better or for worse.
As of now Leigh has been featured in several publications including Echo Weekly magazine in Kitchener Ontario, Aesthetics Now Magazine, the Mandyland Radio show, Sideroads Magazine in Stratford Ontario, Meat for Tea zine in Easthampton Massachusetts three times (including one front and one back cover,) and in the Wandering Artoholic zine, also based in Kitchener Ontario. After the first successful interview on Mandyland radio, Leigh was invited to become an occasional co-host on the show. As of September 2012, Leigh has appeared on five episodes of Mandyland and counting. He continues to sell paintings around the world daily.
Couldn't make sense of these ramblings? Feel free to contact me. Thanks for all your support.
My artwork is of an overwhelmingly introspective nature. I don't find psychoanalytical theory a very interesting read, as the academic books can be largely overwhelming and generally feel too "conclusive" and by their nature don't encourage the reader to define their own processes of analyzation. I try to create paintings that are visual representations of my "armchair" psychological theories. Most often I touch on feelings of isolation and "outsiderness," as well as themes relating to self worth, atheism, religion, humanity, animal cruelty, the nature of art, and our inner struggle with moral ambiguity. And sometimes, I just paint hot dogs.
The most common psychological theme in my work is the metaphorical mask. The mask that we use in our attempts to fit in, or at the very least to obscure the fact that we don't. The mask we wear in the office, or on the factory floor. The mask we wear on the schoolground, in the food courts, and with the hockey team. The mask we wear even when we're alone. Behind these masks who are we? What do we want? Are we normal? Are we sick? Are we "different?" Are we gay, straight, lesbian, or transgendered? Do we just want to dress up as a teddy bear? Are we a janitor, a writer, a bus driver, or a politician? Maybe we're a priest, a congressperson, or the Prime Minister? Maybe you're my brother, my neighbour, my boss, or my real estate agent. What I care about is why you feel the need to wear this mask, and what hiding yourself does to you, and what kind of ripple effect hiding behind these masks has on our society as a whole? When we use our moral compass to say something is inherently wrong we cause people to dusguise that portion of themselves, and when that happens there is no way of telling where the release will come from and what form it will take. I don't claim to have any of the answers, but I do enjoy asking all the questions.
As a self taught artist I don't feel I know much about composition, or colours, or symbolism, so I work instinctually and I try first and foremost to take into consideration the "rhythm" of the painting. I'm more concerned with telling a story or asking a question than I am with becoming technically accomplished as an artist. I mix all my own colours from the primaries, and I only own five tubes of paint - from there I experiment until I get what I want. I believe the only difference between a good self taught artist and a classically trained artist is the self-taught artist, through experimentation and repetition, takes a lot longer to get to the same place.
Because patience is not one of my strong points (I suffer from a severe case of Adult ADHD) and because I have the attention span of a goldfish, I do not attempt to do related paintings in a series. Rather, I try to capture a single, and sometimes profound thought on canvas by temporarily blocking out all the static for a short period of time (someone once said that having ADHD is like having all the channels on the t.v. turned on at once, and I believe that sums it up expertly.) Once the painting is done I find it very difficult and forced, to attempt a piece that is related rather than moving on to another idea altogether. I think of my brain as a gumball machine. I put in a coin, turn the knob, and accept whatever colour gumball I get. When I want another gumball I don't expect to get the same colour, I don't even try, I just turn the knob and hope for the best. But after 7 or 8 turns I'm bound to get the same colour again, so I revisit an older idea when the inspiration strikes, be it days, weeks, or months later, until I eventually end up with a loosely related series of paintings. Therefore I look at my output like a giant mosaic where all the little pieces work together to make a whole. If you want to understand me, or my art, you must piece together the themes that I explore in each painting. Individually each piece tells a story and is meant to be appreciated alone, but as a whole the pieces come together to speak a grander truth.
Click HERE to read my response to a letter I received asking me about my "Self-Portrait with Gumball Machine."
Where do I get my ideas? I believe that life is like a series of autostereograms (remember Magic Eye?) Many people go through life not realizing that there is profound substance all around, one just needs to know how to adjust ones eyes to see it.
Once you learn the technique, you can see the magic in a comic strip, a television series, a derelict building, the chewing gum we got as kids from baseball cards, or Wacky Packages. You'll see it in Science Fiction, Children's Literature, Gordan Korman books, an old chimney, or a shimmering wheat field... and no amount of exhaustively detailed description will help someone who doesn't see the magic... they are either unwilling or unable, and will never be truly whole.
And how can you expect someone like this to appreciate that yes, great art is Da Vinci and Mark Ryden, but great art is also Henry Darger's Story of the Vivian Girls, or although great art is Bill Shakespeare, great art is also Bill Watterson and the deceiving simplicity of his Calvin and Hobbes comic strip?
You can't. You simply give a knowing smile, and shuffle on.
Want to know more? Ask me.
Influences
It was Jean michel Basquiat who inspired me to pick up painting originally, but I also site literary figures like Charles Bukowski, who actually influenced me to create visual art more than most visual artists. I wanted to paint the way Bukowski writes - gritty, honest, and with a complete lack of pretension. I was also inspired by cartoonists like "the Far Side's" Gary Larson, "Calvin and Hobbes" Bill Waterson, and underground comix artist John Pound of "Garbage Pail Kids" fame. My earliest and most lasting influences come from my dad (a talented woodcarver) as well as the British Beano, and Dandy comics that I was raised on. My most contemporary inspirations would be German artist Michael Sowa, Washington based artist Matt Sesow, and Cincinnati native, Tony Dotson. I am also influenced more broadly in colour and composition by late medeival and renaissance art.
Why Neo-Folk?
Generally I think art labels are restrictive and arbitrary, but it is with tongue in cheek that I use terms like Neo-Folk to describe my work because I feel it provides viewers with a sort of mental 'starting point' from which to approach my paintings. Let me put it this way, if you were a ballet fan and you went to see the latest rendition of the Nutckcracker, only to find the show was cancelled and replaced with a GG Allin performance, you might not be mentally prepared to appreciate the man once known as "the most spectacular degenerate in rock n' roll history."
Why "Neo-Folk?" It's simply Neo-Folk because much of my work reflects the relaxed approach to traditional guidelines that I find in medieval art, folk art, and most "outsider" art. It's Neo-Folk because I paint instinctually, rather than academically, putting shadows and proper perspective in when and where I feel they work best. Like most folk-art my work is "characterized by a naive style, in which traditional rules of proportio, perspective, and light source, are not employed." * One contemporary artist that I highly respect and consider to be an unofficial "Neo-Folk" artist himself, is Cincinnati native, Tony Dotson.
Since my work does not fit into the purist/Jean Dubuffet idea of what is "outsider art," I consider Neo-Folk to be a subdivision of "Neo-Outsider" art as coined by my friend, art collector, and art theorist, Dr. Melissa Westbrook.
The long Biography
Leigh Cooney was born in Dublin Ireland in 1981 to Irish mother Ethel Lee and English father Danny Cooney. Leigh has 3 brothers, one of which was also born in Ireland, one born in Australia, and one born in Canada. Ireland in the 1980's was a bleak time with some of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, and being English meant that Leigh's father had a tougher time finding a job than most, in some cases potential employers would openly discriminate against Dan as soon as his accent revealed his British background. In 1987 when Leigh was 6 years old the Family emigrated to Canada in search of a better life, eventually settling in the small Nova Scotia seaport town of Hantsport. Unfortunately finding dependable employment proved to be almost as hard in Nova Scotia as it was in Ireland, and for 5 years the family of 6 lived in near poverty.
Life wasn't easy for the Cooney family in Hantsport where the population barely topped 1000, and foreigners often felt like "outsiders." Leigh and his older brother dressed differently, and had foreign accents; bullying became a regular part of their lives. Leigh became increasingly shy and introverted, beginning a lifelong struggle with anxiety, especially in relation to his peers. At around the age of 10, Leigh started to get into trouble with the local police over minor infractions like vandalism and shoplifting. Unfortunately, being a "foreigner" with no real ties to the community meant that the bored small town police chief made it his personal pet project to make the family miserable.
To make himself feel more at home, Leigh immersed himself in British children's comics like the Dandy, Beano, Topper, and Beezer. At home he ate Irish food, but outside the house he quickly learned to mask his inherent "Irishness," starting with learning to talk with a Canadian accent, and to refer to things by their Canadian names.
With the encouragement of his parents Leigh became an avid reader, and started to dabble in the arts, emulating his favourite comic book artists from both the British comic strips, and the North American comics like Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, DC, Marvel, and the Archie comic books from various eras. The Hantsport years would have an indelible psychological effect on Leigh, eventually influencing not only his direction as an artist, but many of the big decisions in his life, for better or for worse.
In 1992 the family moved again, this time to the industry rich Kitchener Ontario, again in search of employment and a better future. Leigh was forced to make new friends, and bullying once again became a regular part of his life, forcing him to become even more withdrawn, and to find solace in literature, art, and music. At the age of 13, Leigh was introduced to punk music which would eventually change his life. In the world of Punk culture it seemed that to "fit-in" one simply had to "not fit in" anywhere else, something that would echo in his later sentiments on Outsider Art. In punk culture, being different was celebrated, and an interest in books, art, pop culture, and history was respected, and an abhorrence for the so called "Jock" culture that had excluded Leigh for so many years was encouraged.
High School, Basquiat, and the seeds of a career in Art
High School was a difficult time for Leigh due not only to the fact that he still struggled (albeit to a lesser degree) with bullying and alienation, but also because he found classroom learning difficult due to what he now describes as an "unrecognised case of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder," or ADHD. "Overall, my grades weren't too bad due I suppose to my interest in learning in general, but focusing in class was a struggle, and classroom life bored me. Unfortunately, although I was eager to teach myself to paint I never managed to finish a project, and I ended up failing my third year of art classes, making it impossible to get into fourth year and eventually art college."
Nevertheless, he utilized the art classroom after hours to experiment with oil painting. He finished three and a half paintings (selling one to a local business owner) before a lack of self confidence caused him to question his future as an artist and to quit painting. He wouldn't pick up a paint brush again for seven years. It was the discovery of the late New York Neo-Expressionist, Basquiat, that gave Leigh the confidence to attempt painting again. "At first I didn't particularly care for Basquiat, I preferred artists like Salvador Dali and Mark Ryden, that consistently displayed a very high skill-level. Years later though I realized that artists like Dali and Ryden, although great, were like the eye candy of the art world - sweet and sugary and easy to enjoy. But art like Basquiat's was like punk music on canvas, honest and gritty."
After nine years and dozens of jobs ranging from five years as an unskilled labourer, to fine dining waiter, to hotel desk clerk, Leigh once again picked up his brushes and started to paint - this time with less lofty expectations. Over the next two years Leigh would get married, buy a home and studio, and create hundreds of original oil paintings. Leigh's earliest paintings from this time period would reflect his frustration with his frenzied and feverish thought processes that had made it hard to function at work, learn in school, and focus on everyday conversations. It was, as Leigh describes it, "like missing an arm, but no one else besides you sees the this so they throw you three bowling pins and expect you to juggle. Than they don't understand why you can't manage it. It's an invisible disease, and it was a very tough 29 years."
During the first two years of creating art, Leigh would split his time between painting zealously and promoting himself. When in 2010 Leigh found himself unable to meet the demand for paintings he realized it was time to make a life changing decision; with the support of his wife he quit his day job to commit himself full-time to painting as a career... for better or for worse.
As of now Leigh has been featured in several publications including Echo Weekly magazine in Kitchener Ontario, Aesthetics Now Magazine, the Mandyland Radio show, Sideroads Magazine in Stratford Ontario, Meat for Tea zine in Easthampton Massachusetts three times (including one front and one back cover,) and in the Wandering Artoholic zine, also based in Kitchener Ontario. After the first successful interview on Mandyland radio, Leigh was invited to become an occasional co-host on the show. As of September 2012, Leigh has appeared on five episodes of Mandyland and counting. He continues to sell paintings around the world daily.
Couldn't make sense of these ramblings? Feel free to contact me. Thanks for all your support.
