About Leah

     More than anything, I simply offer good intentions to the world through my work. As a painter, I take the tactile visual experiences that excite me (often textures, color combinations, animal figures...) and I use them to dream up enticing ideas that I've never seen before (lately, off the wall ideas that make me laugh out loud). 

     I have not had much formal training in painting, but that is not to say I did this on my own. I graduated with a major in Philosophy and a major in Fine Art with an emphasis in sculpture and ceramics from Coe College in 2005.  I learned a bit of color theory with Peter Thompson and drawing with Priscilla Steele, and I took many sculpture and ceramic classes with John Beckleman who taught me a great deal about the elements and principles of design for 3-d artwork. He also spent a lot of time talking open-mindedly with me about art and philosophy. I spent a semester in New York and apprenticed to Sculptors Romelo Del Dio and Lee Tribe. While there, I went to many museums and performances, modeled at Columbia College, and frequently drew at the Art Student's League and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To round out the end of my BA, I wrote an introspective senior thesis called “Truth and Artifact,” that details my time in college and my journey to understand art at the time. I shared the Marvin Cone Prize for outstanding senior body of work for my sculpture and drawings. More recently, I received some helpful guidance from my friend and master portrait painter Duffy Sheridan before he moved to Oregon.  I take portrait classes periodically from the Scottsdale Artist School, and I gather a lot of helpful guidance from listening to Jeff Hein's podcast the Undraped Artist.

          In addition to painting, I write philosophy on the blogpost Medium.com. You can find the table of contents for my philosophical writing here: https://medium.com/@leah.kiser3/introduction-to-a-philosophy-337ba65ee2ad