She Is Heaven, She Is Earth is a series of paintings I created for a show which ran from September 5 – 26, 2019 at Liberty Arts Gallery in Toronto. Inspired by neolithic fertility goddess figures, sacred animals and Sumerian mythology, the images were meant to reflect an ancient reverence for the divine feminine, something ignored by our contemporary culture at its our own peril. Thanks to Dan Turner for the photos.
Pen 10 was an art show in the summer of 2017 to commemorate 10 years for "Pen Club", a bi-weekly event where friends and I would meet to draw in sketchbooks and eat cake.
"The Afternoon of June 1, 1987"
"The Lemniscate Café"
"Duck Magic"
"Bird hat, witch hat"
Back in 2016 my talented colleague Davin Risk and I started making fine art pieces together for fun. We would both begin one and then swap them, allowing each other to finish what we’d started, even if that meant having our initial layer obliterated. We had so much fun collaborating that two years and almost 50 pieces later we had an art show in Toronto in September 2018.
The work combines paint, collage and drawing on cradled wooden panels which are a variety of sizes, including four, six and twelve inches square. See more at our Instagram account, @leightonrisk
This piece was created for the T.O. Hearts Japan group show to raise funds for the victims of the tsunami in Japan in 2011. Medium: collage, acrylic on cradled canvas. Size: 12 x 12".
A series of pieces created for the Werkaday show at 156 Augusta: one piece every day of the month of November, 2015. Medium: Acrylic gouache on illustration board. Size: each panel 5 x 5".
A small sampling of ten years' worth of scribbles done while chatting with my parents on the phone.
This piece was created for a group exhibition titled "The Green Man" at Toronto’s Nook Collective. Found in many cultures around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetative deities. It is primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of growth each spring.
This is the first in a yet-to-be-realized series of alien sunsets. Medium: collage, acrylic on paper. Size: 6 x 6".
While cleaning up the grounds of my apartment awhile back I found a variety of interesting items, including someone’s homework, an invite to a 75-year old’s birthday and an actual painting (covered in dead bugs). So I rinsed everything off and used the bits and pieces to make a couple of collages. Who needs pricey art supplies?
