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Leonard Jagoda - Fine Artist
The draft prevented Len Jagoda from taking advantage of a scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art. With a monthly base pay in 1966 of less than $50 a month, he decided to accept the Army’s offer to enter OCS and as a result spent 7 years on Active Duty. Following active duty, he returned to school on the GI Bill, but majored in business instead of Art, again for practical reasons. While in school and early in his business life, his works were devoted to horses in pen & ink. Two of these received recognition on covers of The Chronicle of the Horse; but, business demands left little time for art. Almost completely abandoning art for the next 30 years; he continued to be involved with horses. That involvement included riding hunter jumpers, breeding and racing. His equine familiarity comes from true “hands on” experience that also includes delivering foals and training and exercising horses. Len lives on a small farm in Georgia where he still keeps three horses that are convenient live references for his art. His devotion to dogs is just as passionate. Over the years he and his wife have adopted over 30 homeless dogs most living into their teens. They currently have five rescued dogs and one rescued cat. Len accuses St. Francis of Assisi of having a duty station at the edge of their property, directing animals in need to them.
He left the business world in February 2007 and has since committed to art on a full time basis. Upon his reentry to art, he made a conscious decision to work only in pencil (graphite) and sculpture to focus on the basics of form and values. This also demanded dusting off his collection of anatomy books and studying bone structure, muscles and the mechanics of his subjects. He only moved on to color in the medium of pastels after spending over a year in his self imposed apprenticeship.
