We recently connected with Diohn Leoni and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Diohn thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
I started making art for sale in 2020 and started exhibiting sculpture in shows and galleries in 2023 when I retired from practicing psychology. I do think I would have enjoyed a career as an artist or Creative when I was younger, but I did not know how to make that happen at the time. Fortunately, I think I am much freer in my thinking now. I let go of a lot of perfectionism and people pleasing.
I once read that you do not have to burden your creativity with the expectation that it support you financially. That idea was very liberating for me. It took the pressure to only create sellable work away, and has allowed me to “play” for 61 years. Though I did not have an art career per se, I have been free to express my artistic self through poetry, music, cooking, sewing, weaving, building furniture, designing garden patios, painting, and sculpting. I choose when to engage in art making, and the depth of commitment and learning I want. I’m free to move in cycles, fits and spurts. I don’t have to worry about making mistakes.
Diohn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a surrealist sculptor.
I am primarily self taught, and enjoy working with ceramic or paper clay and mixed media like bones, gourds, sticks, feathers, beads, and fabric. I have sculpted a series of realistic but somewhat mythological faces, humorous gourd horses, as well as other creatures that are both impossible and believable. I try to have my work suggest emotion, gesture, movement, psychological depth, and/or humor.
I am most proud of creating work that has an element of surprise. I’m also proud of myself for saying yes to doing the things that scare me; exhibiting, teaching, asking galleries to consider carrying my work, and posting on social media.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My goal as an artist is to continue refining my technical skills while coaxing my ideas in the direction of depth, humor, and fantasy. I also want to make more connections with people who are better at promoting and selling my work than I am.
My mission as a teacher is to help other people find and express their creativity and enjoy the ride. I strive to provide an emotionally safe environment for adult students to feel supported by me and one another as they learn new skills, take risks, and persist with humor and lightness through the bumps in their projects.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I believe everyone has a creative mind, but many many people had their courage to create stomped on by teachers, parents, peers, or other critics. We all have insecurities and we live in a culture that values the arrival of success more than the journey of trial and errors. We need to teach people how to learn. This involves looking at mistakes as feedback, Artists need encouragement, specific feedback, and someone to teach them why good art is good.
Museums should be free. Children should be encouraged to try a smorgasbord of artistic activities without worrying about if or where they have talent. Classroom critiques should be conversation provoking explorations of the artist’s alternative choices in design, concept, or execution. There is a place for judging the quality of art based on concept and technical skill, so not everyone should get a prize, but there also needs to be a place for people to create for fun. Think of it as the visual equivalent of comparing a jam band with an orchestra. I think both are valuable.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.diohnleoni.com
- Instagram: diohnleoni
- Facebook: Diohn Leoni
