William Leech

I scribble. Distilling anxious visions and thoughts into movements of my hand, I mark on the paper in waves of color and line– sometimes tranquil, sometimes violent, never still. 

My work ebbs and flows, sometimes methodical and meticulous while other times frenetic. Imagery is painted, then scrubbed away with bleach, then painted again, then scrawled over– the pendulum swings between serenity and chaos, reflecting the duplicitous nature of the lived experience with anxiety. I never find myself entirely at peace nor entirely in despair, and consequently, the paintings and drawings I create are filled with the echoes of both states of mind.

This imagery exists both in large, enveloping paintings and in small, intimate handmade books. Both formats, in different ways, function as invitations into an envelopment of my storming thoughts. Paper is the main vehicle for my work, as it is an active participant in the texture and tone of the imagery rather than a silent background, and eventually buckles and sloughs away under layer after layer of media application. It is not just a surface for an image but a physical object that bears the scars of the tumultuous making process. Water based media, bleach and pastels blend into a medley of drawn contours and shapes that exist in the space between thought and reality.