Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Leone.
Hi Sean, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
The most significant parts of my practice were born in college, so I’ll start there.
In my family, college was the only option for what to do with one’s life immediately following high school. I had actually never considered the possibility of a gap year and “community college” was taboo (which I realize in retrospect is unfortunate), so I jumped straight into a four-year. I knew I wanted to study theology and worldviews to some extent, so I applied to a few Christian universities, which is how I ended up at BIOLA. (Because I didn’t grow up in the Church, I felt a bit out of place, but I found my niche cliques.) Uncertain what I wanted to major in, I stumbled into the BFA program merely because it had significantly more units than anything else I was considering studying. I figured I could easily switch majors two years in and graduate on time with a BS in business if I really needed to. I signed up for the graphic design concentration and tricked myself into thinking I was in art for practical reasons. In the last year of my studies, I fell in love with painting. That’s how I found the medium. It took a couple of years before I found the stripes.
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in cryptography. What interests me is not so much the history and practical implementations of cryptography but rather the mere process of inventing and applying new ways of codifying written information without practical obligations. This fascination has taken different forms, but more recently, I’ve been captivated by codifying written information so that it doesn’t resemble decipherable information at all, but rather an image. That’s what drew me to the stripes.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I’ve struggled with mental health problems from a young age. The most significant of these I had during my early life were OCD and depression. They put me on medication in second or third grade. I gradually stopped taking the drugs and stifled my problems, convincing myself I had grown out of it all. (Along with this, I was struggling with same-sex attraction without explicitly knowing it the time, which was disorienting.)
When I was 23, I confronted my half-assed participation in my relationship with God. I’ve always been an all-or-nothing thinker, so I asked God to bring me as close to him as he could in this life without killing me.
A few days later, I had what I might describe as a mental break in which all of the mental health problems I had always struggled with returned but affected me far more severely than they had before. It’s not that he caused the problems, but rather that he allowed them back into my life after reigning them in for so long, knowing I would come out the other side stronger. Painting was the only part of my life that didn’t change, which makes sense given that painting is to me an act of physical prayer. The act of painting became a state of rest for me.
Now that I’ve made it out of the darkest parts of my experience (at least so far), I wouldn’t trade what my relationship with God is now for an easier life. The past five years have been a bit less straightforward than the first 22 years were, but I think God knows what he’s doing.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
From a formal standpoint, I paint zig-zagging echoing stripes. That’s probably the most defining characteristic of my output at this time. From a conceptual standpoint, I don’t know of many artists making work that can be “read” in the same way mine can be. The way I translate words into stripes is actually legible, given that the reader has some time and measuring tape.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
If you want to paint for a living, don’t paint because you like it. Paint because you have to. Paint because you’re tortured and you have no more efficient means to process your trauma than painting. Conversely, making art should not be your purpose in life. If you think you need to move to LA and live in a van just to have a shot at being a “successful” artist, you’ll either burn out or die. Most notably, have family and friends that you prioritize above your practice. Painting is a long game and it requires you to have a healthy-enough life that you’ll make it to when your career starts to pick up. I’m certainly not there yet.
Second (and less importantly), emotionally divorce yourself from your work when you judge it. If you care about making art in a professional capacity, you have to be able to see your work objectively. Ask blunt people for their opinions of your work. Prioritize those who are blunt, articulate, precise, and have a respectable understanding of contemporary art and the world which surrounds it.
Contact Info:
- Website: seanleoneart.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/seanleoneart
