We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leah Reitz Winter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Leah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Art was always a part of my life. My father is a landscape architect and my mother was a homemaker. Together we made a lot of gifts for friends and family. She always had interesting ideas to create and often sell at craft fairs, etc. I would go to work with my father sometimes, and watch a colleague of his color his drawings for clients. I said “I want to be her when I grow up, and color for a living.” Through the teen years when things often felt confusing, I would retreat to my space and work on projects. I would teach myself by perfecting realism, still life drawings, coping works to figure out technique, and learn beyond what I was learning in school in art special.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My work has evolved through my own emotional development. In college, I focused on expressionistic landscapes that were more realistic but had a flare for a unqiue color palette. I also explored surrealism and symbolism in my work. I wanted to stir emotion in the viewer, whether it was a hot topic I was passionate about, or recreate a feeling of awe and wonder in my Italy series. Which was the first time I was ever on an air plane, I went abroad for a painting may-term in Italy. Those themes still exist in my work now. As a full-time psychotherapist, my work now reflects my own interpretation of the healing process. Understanding clients and their inner landscapes, as well as my own, has given me a platform to keep returning to. The work visually depicting the inner transformation that happens over time in befriending parts of ourselves that we have locked away. The energy, the movement of emotion, the inner tension, the relationship to self and to the environment, natural and spiritual, my work carries these themes throughout.

My work is layered with color, texture, symbolism, expression, spiritual and natural concepts. Its layered for the viewer to be drawn close and to question “what is that?”, which is exactly what I want to the viewer to question. That is the question we often explore in therapy, “What is that response? Where does it come from?” Art is a mirror, the outer expression to the inner stirring and the intersection of what how we relate to our outer and inner selves.

My latest pieces are more transpersonal in nature. How we relate to the natural world and how that is a representation of how we treat ourselves and others. For me, our natural world and our connection to it, has a deep unconscious impact on our internal health and our emotional development.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think the most validating thing I have heard other creatives express and a sentiment that I share, is the internal need to create or “else”. When creatives are not creating, there is something going on with them. During times of health issues, stress, depression, loss, the first thing to go is often the creative outlet, which typically compounds the issues they are facing. The most helpful thing that creatives need to do, is to keep showing up for their craft. Even if it is messy and imperfect during those hard times. Creatives need to create to heal, process, self-regulate, and work through however life is presenting at that moment. Creating happens in my head all day long. I am constantly looking at the world through an internal lens of light, color, movement, mood, texture, pattern, design and overall, inspiration. For me, I am always following an internal spark of something that stirs my soul.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I have been an artist and a pursuer of artistic expression since I was 5 years old. For most of this time, artistic communities were slim. Most artists create in a vacuum of their own introverted exploration. With social media, the artistic communities online that are available, are much more available to the emerging artist than ever before. As with anything you are pursuing, being a human means the need for connection to self and others. It is my hope, that creative communities continue to support and promote other artists’ work that they admire. As we are all trying to grow and expand reach, to find the tribe of people who resonate with what you are creativing, it is quite difficult to find those groups. My hope is that creatives will help other creatives grow by recommending their work to opportunities that they see would be a fit. I have seen this with some of the artists I have met along the way, and they are artists who are really secure in the work they are doing. They are also willing to share their struggles and triumphs with growing artists. Like a scaffolding system, we can each work to expand and champion others’ work we admire. Art can be the catalyst for change in the world, we all need to support one another to spread the word.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahreitzwinter
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LRWinterStudio