We recently connected with Leon Young and have shared our conversation below.
Leon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
As a child, I came from broken home with tree brothers and an alcoholic mother. We never had a lot and always moving to city to city, school to school. I never had a normal child hood and used drawing as my escape. I would draw on walls, school desks and everything I could. My mother didn’t care what I was doing and where I was. 3rd grade we finally stop moving around and by that time I had notebooks full of drawing and Ideas I drew out on paper. drawing I was free of feeling hungry, cold and forgot the pain of being beaten. I loved color and my mind was free to draw and no one stopped me. Elementary school I would draw during class and my teachers pushed me to keep going. They seen something I didn’t even know at the time. In middle school I was doing point-ism of marvel comics and drawing on all empty walls in my city. When i turned 17 I wanted to work and hated being home. I felt lost and that summer came across a big painting company down the street from my home. I think I walked pasted there 100 times and wanted to go in. Then one day the owner seen me and walked over to me asked me why I keep coming by? I looked at him and said I love drawing and painting. Seeing everyone covered in paint and smiles on there face was a shock to me. He looked at me and please come and show me what you can do. After that everything changed. I learned everything from Venetian plasters, textures, all types of paints. Anything and everything was a blank canvas and I went from just drawing to using textures. My art changed from that day on.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
As a child, drawing and coloring was my escape. As a man, I made the choice of being a artist and never looked back. My artwork is always changing and my style changes everyday. The mistakes I made in creating art only made me want to make bigger, better pieces. I came from a broken childhood and art was my freedom from the pain. Pain turned to passion and I follow no ones path, I created my own. I took what learned from painting homes, mansions, boats, 100ft. yachts, large air crafts and created amazing artwork. Texture and detail is the main ingredients for making artwork and My artwork shows it.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Growing up everyone kept telling art was a waste of time and that I should’ve been a doctor. I had great grades and skilled hands that would perfect for those professions but I just love draw. I loved how I could draw and come up with new artwork from my imagination. I was lost at first as an artist and it was hard to make a living from art. So working for a paint company growing up helped so much. Learning about all types of paint and the processes of paints. Also you learn most from experienced painters and journeymen. Soon I was painting large aircraft and building sculptures with the experience I learned
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
What helped me build my reputation was not giving up on art. Never listened to anyone who said my artwork was confusing or different. Focused my artwork and made it my own.
Contact Info:
- Website: leonsartwork.com
- Instagram: leonsartwork
- Facebook: leonyoung7
Image Credits
Leon young