Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Brown.
Leah, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I come from a very artful family. My parents worked out of our home as luthiers, creating world-renowned stringed musical instruments including lutes, guitars, and violins. The workshop was the whole bottom floor of our house and was filled with every kind of woodworking tool, from delicate antique hand tools to large machinery to machines of my father’s own invention. I got my first toolbox when I was four, and it wasn’t just these plastic toy sets they sell today. I still have some of those first tools. So, I guess you can say I was raised in a family of Makers. I spent much of my time after school and on weekends working on my own projects in that shop, and by the time I was making my college decisions, art school was a natural choice. I went to RISD, where I met my future husband, Peter Symons. We both graduated in 2004 with our BFAs in Sculpture and then, went out into the world on the difficult journey of becoming self-supporting artists.
In 2006, I did a year-long residency through Hub-Bub in Spartanburg, SC, and came out with a full portfolio of new work and a solid direction for my artmaking practice. I moved to NYC for 2 years to be with Peter, who was finishing up Graduate School at Pratt Institiute. This was a very formative time as we were creating and exhibiting, as well as working for an art fabrication company, where I honed my craft in a professional setting and got many insights into the behind-the-scenes business of being an artist.
When the first signs of the Recession started, we pounced on a teaching opportunity for Peter at FAU. We moved to Fort Lauderdale and bought a fixer-upper. While Peter was teaching, I began an experimental gallery, 18 Rabbit, in downtown Fort Lauderdale, right across from where the Brightline station now is. Peter and I fixed up that space and were showing really exciting work by our friends in New York and around the country, and had national calls to artists, and began really engaging the local, South Florida artists, too. We used the space as our studio as well and continued to create and exhibit our own work. We were only in that space for a year, but it led to our partnering with Doug McCraw, Founder, and CEO of FATVillage Arts district. We moved our practice to FATVillage in 2009, and have now overseen the realization of more than 60 curated shows throughout the village, been part of the development of FATVillage as a 501c3 non-profit, receiving 6 grants, including a Knight Arts Challenge Grant. Alongside Doug McCraw and Lutz Hofbauer, we started a public art company called Art+Light+Space, and have begun creating permanent public artworks, including a cut aluminum sculpture on the Riverwalk in Fort Lauderdale, an interactive mural out of thousands of black and white manipulable cylinders, and in 4 of the Broward Health hospitals. In 2013, I received the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship, in 2014, I graduated with my MFA in Sculpture from the University of Miami, in 2016 I had my first solo museum show, “Transformation of Echo: World of Dreams” at the Young At Art Museum.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Becoming a working artist is rarely a smooth ride. A conversation I frequently have with other art school graduates is how unfortunate it is that the sole focus of an art school education is art making, art history, and art theory. There is no emphasis on how to manage an art career as a business — which it very much is— or any kind of career training for jobs within the arts other than teaching.
I entered the workforce under the completely naïve impression that as an artist I would be making an income solely off sales of my work. What I discovered is that for me at least, this is a field best approached from all angles. Making and exhibiting art is at the center of my practice, but I surround and brace that with curating, giving lectures and workshops, building community through art, collaborating, being on boards and panels, fabricating work for other artists, and grant writing.
Leah Brown Art – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My studio practice is the physical manifestation of an ongoing investigation of dream experiences. I’m probably best known for my sculptural work of realistic, life-sized human/animal hybrids, but I also create narrative scenes out of my own hair, make intricate laser-cut silhouettes, and collaborate with husband, Peter Symons, on large-scale public artworks.
In addition to my studio and public art practice, I am exhibitions director and co-curator of the FATVillage Arts District 501c3 in Ft Lauderdale, FL, where I oversee the execution of art exhibitions in the FATVillage Projects and the FAR Gallery.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success as making artwork I choose through a process of exploration, and being able to live comfortably off that process. Every new exhibition, opportunity, commission, and publication feels like a win. Recognition is nice, but a healthy live-work balance is key. It’s pretty common in the arts to have a very hectic schedule, and for years, that was the case with me, but I have a young daughter, so I try to limit my work to regular hours, so that I can spend quality time with her, and my close family and friends.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.leahbrownart.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @leahbrownart
Image Credit:
Monica McGivern, Oriole Tarridas
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