Lace fish, feather cats, and pink shell flamingos… welcome to the fantastical. Leah Kiser (aka Artifact Fine Art) takes your hand and invites you to join her in this creative journey, where nothing is as it seems but everything feels possible. While Leah expresses, “…the pieces do not have a collective message or agenda,” the details of her vision provokes a sense of wanderlust. It allows us, the captivated viewer, to ponder the many elements of her still-life paintings and intriguing characters, as well as the freedom to choose our own path of interpretation.
Leah strikes a balance between the interplay of realism and surrealism and asks us to explore it. Each component, regardless of its size or prominence within the composition, contributes to the overarching concept. We feel her artistry unfurling, like a flower slowly opening itself to the warm summer sun, poised to bloom. A flower Leah would, undoubtedly, transform into something even more magical.
A testament to the power of creativity, ordinary items like an apple, a teapot or a shell are conceptualized into the extraordinary. With a deeper appreciation of their simplicity and beauty, the interplay of depth and emotion seems woven through her medium. This juxtaposition creates layers of meaning and we see beyond the surface, towards something far more complex. It challenges conventional perspectives and makes her work a compelling force within the world of contemporary art.
These surreal creatures, with their whimsical charm, welcome us into a realm far removed from the webs of a mundane reality. A kaleidoscope of patterns and rich colors fuse as each stroke of the brush weaves a narrative that beckons us to explore. Bursting with a dreamlike setting, Leah Kiser’s work evokes a familiarity and each artwork is a story waiting to be discovered. It not only enriches our understanding of the world she creates but also serves as a catalyst for imaginative thinking and emotional introspection.
Join us as we engage in a surreal dialogue that piques the mind and the creative soul. Come, unlock your imagination.
Exclusive Interview with Leah Kiser
Leah, thank you so much for taking time to share with our readers! I appreciate your expression, “I simply offer good intentions to the world through my work.” That resonates deeply and holds such a universal truth. From feathered cats to pink shell flamingos, looking at your paintings ignites something in the imagination. Challenging conventional perceptions and curiosity, what do you hope viewers gain from your work?
I hope that my work delights people in a way they were not expecting – if they feel perplexed with a smile on their face, I feel like I’ve done my job.
I kept telling myself once I had time, I would make large scale realist paintings of illustrative ideas. Time didn’t come, so I made time.
Shaped by continuous learning, experimentation, experiences and influences, themes, and techniques… how has your creative vision changed over time? And what has this evolution taught you about yourself?
That is a big question – I have been creating for as long as I can remember. From the beginning, I would say that I have always had a desire to try to record reality in a way that does its justice. In college, I shifted gears and focused on non-representational sculpture (my professors encouraged non-representational work).
It was a big detour, but it was useful to learn about composing dynamic 3-dimensional non-representational forms. I think my love for the sculptural elements of form, mass, and volume is evident in my paintings. After I graduated in 2005, I reevaluated myself: What did I really want to do now that I was on my own? I gravitated toward drawing, from life and photographs. I experimented with colored pencils and learned to work with color in a realistic way. Then, I had kids, and a full-time job, and I didn’t get much time in the studio for a few years.
I read a lot of children’s books at that time and I found that I really loved illustrations. I kept telling myself once I had time, I would make large scale realist paintings of illustrative ideas. Time didn’t come, so I made time.
My creative vision has changed a lot over time, and the journey has taught me that I should pay attention to my ideas and try to render them as best I can, because when I express them in an effective way, many people will appreciate them too.
After a full day of work, and putting my kids to bed, I sat at the kitchen table and worked on small pen and ink and watercolor illustrations of a book that my brother wrote. When the book was done, I decided to transition to large, bold, more realistic illustrations. But what subject did I want to paint? My daughter had these detailed dinosaur toys, and she put a barbie tutu on one of them, and I fell in love with these big ferocious dinosaurs wearing colorful dainty tutus.
I wasn’t sure how others would feel about them, because illustrative concepts like that are normally rendered in a cartoonish style. But people connected with them. They delighted viewers in way they weren’t expecting. That kind of response was so satisfying, and it still motivates me to create to this day.
My creative vision has changed a lot over time, and the journey has taught me that I should pay attention to my ideas and try to render them as best I can, because when I express them in an effective way, many people will appreciate them too.
…I’m driving down the road and an idea pops into my awareness that makes me laugh out loud, and I think “I have to paint that!” I can’t tell you how many times that sort of thing has happened to me in the shower or in my car.
That is so true. Will you describe a place that has become inspirational to the creation of your artwork. Maybe a unique atmosphere that sparks your imagination and fuels your artistic lens?
Honestly, and this is going to sound funny, because it is not an inspirational space at all, but it is where many ideas come to me: In the shower.
Often, in my studio, I’ll struggle to think of a solution to an artistic challenge that I’m having. Then, a few days later I’m in the shower, thinking of nothing in particular, and then BAM – a solution just strikes me. It happens when I’m driving too. Like once, I was trying to come up with a painting with a particular subject, but I couldn’t think of any composition that got me excited.
Then, a few days later, I’m driving down the road and an idea pops into my awareness that makes me laugh out loud, and I think “I have to paint that!” I can’t tell you how many times that sort of thing has happened to me in the shower or in my car.
The core of the artistic process captures emotion and narratives through so many visual elements that often go unseen. Sometimes we (the viewer) only see the final product and little is known about the intricate journey of its creation – like how the idea manifested in the shower or in the car!
How do you feel about sharing your process through online platforms and inviting your audience to delve into a more detailed, behind-the-scenes view of your work?
I post all my works in progress on Instagram. I think, especially with AI generated imagery online, it seems beneficial to show everyone that this work was painted by hand, little by little, over a significant period of time. In the past few years, a lot of people have started asking me if my paintings are AI generated, and I like to be able to point to my Instagram page and say that I created the image and painted it by hand without AI tools, you can see the whole long and painstaking process of creation right there on Instagram.
I use primitive marks to represent what I see and I notice remarkable things that I never would have seen if I had not taken the time to look closer. I also enjoy dreaming up ideas.
What components of your art do you most enjoy working with, and why?
Number one, I most enjoy drawing realistically. It is exhilarating – it feels like the most direct contact with reality that I am capable of. I use primitive marks to represent what I see and I notice remarkable things that I never would have seen if I had not taken the time to look closer. I also enjoy dreaming up ideas. I have degrees in both art and philosophy and I love ideas that blow my mind and flip my world upside down. I also love ideas that make me laugh, or ideas that are unusual. In addition to drawing, daydreaming is my other favorite part of my job.
It always seems like other people have it together, or their path is paved and smooth, and I’m on this bumpy road in a makeshift cart just barely holding on.
Speaking of daydreaming… what’s the most valuable guidance you’ve received when it comes to making your dreams a reality?
This advice came from an unknown source that I found when I was feeling lost and aimless: “Your purpose” it said, “is to be in the world and offer it your gifts.” I’ve pushed through a lot of doubts, setbacks, and other struggles in my life (like anyone).
It always seems like other people have it together, or their path is paved and smooth, and I’m on this bumpy road in a makeshift cart just barely holding on. But (like everyone), I do have gifts to offer, I’m cobbling them together as best I can, and to the people who feel like they receive some benefit from my work, my paintings are like gifts that they can carry in their memory for the rest of their lives if they want to. They might even outlive me; I like the idea they might bring delighted befuddlement to future generations of humanity.
What exciting projects are you working on for 2025?
People tuning into my Instagram feed (@artifactfineart) will get to watch a series of hopeful, narrative, imaginative realist paintings slowly come into being. Words cheapen them, so I won’t tell you more; you’ll have to go see them for yourself. The paintings are inspired by a writing project that I spent a lot of time on last year. Last year I published, on Medium.com (@leah.kiser), 20 philosophical articles about seeking common ground.
I’ve been working on them for many years, but I finally published them last year in response to the emotion triggering disinformation flowing from the internet for the past 10 years. Disinformation has poisoned people against each other; it has destroyed the social fabric in my country – breaking up families, friendships, churches, schools, community organizations… Turning away from internet discord and attending to the task of writing about common ground was refreshing. It brought these paintings to mind.
They are hopeful reminders that we are connected by the experience we are having together – each through our own senses; the experience is physical, interactive, rich, vast, complex, and in many ways it’s “magical;” it’s beyond our comprehension. But to our tiny human minds, it’s like white noise – we easily become oblivious to it. We stop seeing it when we get distracted by the stories, we tell ourselves (including the stories internet bots are telling us about each other). When we are ready to really look, listen, feel…, it is all around us, waiting ever presently, for our attention.
Keep an eye on my Instagram @artifactfineart to watch those paintings unfold, and if you want to read my philosophical work, you can find it on Medium @leah.kiser3 You’ll want to look for the first article: Introduction to a Philosophy.
About Leah Kiser//
My work is a collection of large-scale playful illustrations painted in a realistic style. I feel like I should say something profound or serious here, but the pieces do not have a collective message or agenda. I didn’t paint them to be profound and serious. I made these paintings because they bring me joy and I hope to bring good feelings to others through them. At this time, I cannot seem to get excited to paint subjects that don’t make me laugh, and I’m thankful to have found an audience that enjoys them enough to hang them on their walls.
To prepare for these paintings, (in addition to practicing for years to gain the skill to paint realistically) I let my mind wander and let images come to me. When these images make me laugh out loud or make me think “I’ve never seen anything like that before” then there is a good chance they will strike others in a “I don’t know why this exists, but I’m glad that it does” kind of way.
I like when art catches me off guard like that – like a dance choreographed by Paul Taylor, or a Monty Python skit… others seem to enjoy it too – watching viewers do a double take and laugh out loud is one of my favorite things about painting this way.
I began painting with this balance of realism and illustration because I couldn’t decide between the two. The things I love about illustration are the styles and colors and the smart compositional tricks illustrators use to guide the eye and convey a mood or story without words. I like trying them out in my paintings. But details also call to me.
I use photographs or objects as visual references, and they help me capture perspective, lighting, and form, while trying to maintain the life and spark of the original imagined idea. It is a challenging balance between observing and imagining. This spectrum between realism and illustration leads to variability and experimentation in my work. It adds another dimension of play that you’ll likely see more of from me in the future.
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