Leon Tillman

Leon Tillman began as his artist residency in January and will have a culminating exhibit of his work in June 2015. In Bed-Stuy, where he grew up and still lives, he says there were little to no organizations that offered art lessons and few neighborhood galleries to display emerging artists' work. As the first artist-in-residence at Window Studio, he has seen that the studio brings change for the better. His goal is to uplift the community through paint and sculpture inspired by societal and political current events. He also plans to bridge the gap between art and a place where creativity has been absent for a long time.

I consider my work unrestricted because of the various ideas obtained from dreams and the diversity witnessed every day I walk down a New York street. I am motivated by color and sound, preferably working with noise and people around to feed my decisions on shade and value. Loving all things and people of this world, I believe one should produce beauty by any means necessary when given the gift to create. The materials I choose facilitate my artistic drive and allow me to provoke the minds of the audience by showing skills possessed in pastels, graphite, paint, metal, wood and clay. With every finished work there is a dialogue created with the viewer; whether it’s a pair of lips drawn with chalk pastel regarding sensuality or a clay sculpture depicting social, political and/ religious injustices. When someone marvels at the colors I use or stops to ponder what is trying to be said in a piece, I feel accomplished and hope that my art has reached another individual positively.