Antione Leonard

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Im a 34 year-old African American male with distant roots from Cuba. I was born on the west side of Chicago where life was all about knowing how to survive. My mother and grandmother, who taught me to dream and tell a story of battle and triumph, raised me. I am the eldest of four siblings, one brother and two sisters. As the eldest son, there was no room for mistakes. I began to strive for an understanding of success at an early age. I began to sketch at the age of six and started to develop skills such as the use of light and shadow and imagination. Most of my ideas for painting were combined with my imaginative, philosophical, spiritual and realistic beliefs about reality. Growing up in the late seventies and entire eighties gave me an urgent desire to create my own world through drawing and reading, which was the only way I could escape the gloomier sides of life. My style of art is unique because of its connection with guarded ideas and injustices related to tradition, religion, and political beliefs. The mediums that I use to paint with are oil based, acrylic, and mixed media.
Later, I developed an ear for poetry and a heart for philosophy that has also contributed to my creative and artistic talent. During my four years at DePaul University I studied and majored in Psychology with a concentration in communications. While, I did not attempt to enroll in a Master of Fine Arts program, later I began to incorporate and use art as a part of my therapeutic work with mental health clients. I have been painting for over 20 years, using this ability to relax, motivate, and mature me as I continue to learn more about creating through the form of art. The current style and focus of my art today is based upon abstract impressionist ideas combined with concepts derived from the Harlem Renaissance art period.
One of my most recent accomplishments as an artist came last year. I was selected as one of the Chicago finalist in the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation’s National Fine Arts Competition. Bombay Sapphire in partnership with Russell and Danny Simmons' Rush Philanthropic Art Foundation teamed up to create the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series, a nationwide search for the newest wave of imaginative artists. It was a great honor to be selected as one of the finalist for Chicago and to have two of my paintings on display at Gallery Guichard. Owned by renowned artist, Andre Guichard; Gallery Guichard showcases art from the African Diaspora (Africa, the Caribbean and the United States). I am also, an active member of a several art organizations, one in particular located in Elgin, Illinois called the Next Wave Art Salon, which allows me to experience art from a broader diverse perspective. My philosophical view of art would be compared to life and death, the source of our very beginning and ending. I get a keen sense of life and excitement when drawing and painting a picture. It almost seems as if I was creating something that would live. Also, I relate to the death of a picture after it is finished. It possesses a serenity and sleep that appears to be neither dead nor living. This is my philosophy of what art truly is, created neither dead nor alive, yet it is full of life as it sleeps!
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