Interview with Leah Hewson: “What is important in my work is the reminder that freedom of expression can exist into adulthood and that the pursuit and space for individuality is imperative.”

The roots of what I do all come from painting. For the first five years I was working with the figure and creating surrealist art using mixed media and collage before moving into Abstraction. In more recent years I’ve had the opportunities to collaborate and bring my practice into different mediums, having opportunities also to travel with this work. My painting has been translated into murals, installations, sculpture and print and I’ve also experimented with animation and video.

What are the key themes that appear in your art?

The cycle to the studio journey gets me into the right headspace and also keeps my home a space for rest. I have a pretty rigid structure to my day as I work 9:00 to 5:00 Monday to Friday which allows space to breathe into work and out of it. The rhythm of this is necessary as it can be intense and very stimulating. I generally work on at least two or three paintings at a time, sometimes up to five or six!

Before I start a new series, I like to clear away any remnants of previous work, like clearing old energy to make way for new, and to hang the canvases on the wall to have their own space. It’s really exciting to step back at this point and anticipate the potential of what’s about to happen. At this point, I will ground myself in the defiance against all the white space and go in determined not to be afraid of it or afraid to make ‘mistakes’. Having a new mix to listen to can give me a lot of fresh energy and put me into the right headspace to work also!

Can you tell us your artistic influences? 

I get influence from a lot of sources outside of the artistic realm. It’s only in the last number of years I’ve realised that I’m not a big consumer of visual art but find influence in other places of expression. I could not make what I make without music. I listen to a lot of repetitive electronic and techno music while I’m creating as it puts me into a primal flow state and keeps me there for a long time, until my body cant keep up.

The order and repetition in architecture, patterns in textiles, color combinations in clothing are all influences. Dancing and moving my body has a great impact on the energy to which I bring to the studio. Even though my studio practice is 9 to 5, my senses are always in tune to absorb potential inspiration.

I can name many artists whose work I love but have nothing to do with what I do – Richard Serra, Christo, Marina Abramovic, Ai Wei Wei to name a few. The influence they have is the gravity of their presence on the audience. I think this is what brought me to my mantra ‘persistence is the key’ which helps me to push through my oscillating doubt.

I also like reading and listening to podcasts that are about brain activity. Anything from the evolved function and squishy tissue to alternate states of mind in psychedelics to breakthroughs in modern therapies and disorders.

I recently created a design for a thirty-six-foot glass corridor over in LA. I haven’t posted about it yet as I’m waiting for the rest of the building to be finished. It’s the biggest project to date in terms of scale, budget, challenges and working with the medium of glass for the first time. Working through the imposter syndrome and giving up control along the way was challenging. Although, it was an incredible experience to work with so many talented people in their field, to all work together to bring this concept to fruition. It was a long way from just me and my canvas in the studio and I learned a lot during this time both about exterior processes and about myself.