Category Archives: Featured

Trauma: Artists’ Reflections on Healing and Resilience @ Hyde Art Gallery

The Hyde Art Gallery is thrilled to reopen for our second exhibition of the Spring semester, “Trauma: Artists’ Reflections on Healing and Resilience”. This emotionally impactful collection, co-curated by artists Annie Claflin and Ted Meyer, delves into personal narratives that examine both visible and invisible wounds to communicate, educate and reveal that art is not only a tool for expressing pain but also a vehicle for healing. The participating artists contemplate varied subjects such as war, cancer, sexual assault, and mental health. Artistic media like painting, fiber, and video integrate stories of harrowing life events in an exhibition that ultimately conveys solidarity. Alone, these artists communicate their physical and psychological pain through glitter, fabric, wood, imagery, and audio, while collectively inviting the audience into their healing processes.

The intersection of trauma and artistic practice can be a profound exploration into the depths of human experience and expression. Trauma, whether emotional, psychological, or physical, can etch indelible marks on an individual’s psyche, shaping their worldview, perceptions, and modes of self-expression. For individuals who have endured trauma, art becomes a vessel for processing and reconciling with their past experiences. It serves as a medium through which they can articulate the inexpressible, confront their demons, and reclaim agency over their narrative. This creative process, inherently introspective and cathartic, offers artists a space of refuge where they can transform pain into beauty, chaos into order, and despair into hope.

Participating artists: Alexandra Carter, Annie Claflin, Ayin Es, Jada Fabrizio, Rose-Lynn Fisher, Patricia Fortlage, Siobhan Hebron, Daniel Leighton, Linda Litteral, Krista Machovina, Ted Meyer, Mhairi Morrison, Dylan Mortimer, Rosalyn Myles, Kathy Nida, Alice Marie Perreault, Dominic Quagliozzi, Jane Szabo, Susan Trachman, Christiana Updegraff, Melissa Watkins, & Julie Weiman

Exhibition dates: March 18th – April 18th, 2024

Artist reception: Tuesday, April 2nd from 4-6pm

Artist discussion panel: Thursday, April 11th at 2pm

Also posted in Art

The Screen In My Head @ Laemmle Monica Film Center

Art in the Arthouse presents Daniel Leighton’s “The Screen In My Head”

Daniel Leighton is an Augmented Reality artist, iPad painter, filmmaker, and technologist who started programming at the age of eleven. Having Crohn’s Disease since birth, Leighton faced his mortality from a very young age. His countless medical experiences have propelled him on a quest to deeply understand his physical and emotional being.

He creates emotional portraits with simple lines and brilliant colors to capture complex states of the human psyche, while exploring the possibilities of technology and human emotion being harnessed for the greater good. Leighton adds Augmented Reality (AR) to his paintings by combining his backgrounds in filmmaking and computer programming. Daniel’s work has been featured by Timothy Potts, Director of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Bryan Barcena Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Nicholas Barlow, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the LA Center for Digital Art (LACDA), Technarte, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA) and more.

Artist Statement:

My art is focused on the importance of identifying, acknowledging and expressing emotions. We all feel emotions and they impact us greatly, but they often go unacknowledged. This is due to the speed and complexity of modern day life, as well as a cultural imperative to find short-term solutions rather than addressing the core issues that would lead to long-term positive change.

To create my work, I combine my four primary areas of study: art, technology, film and the human condition. Synthesizing the old and new, I depict raw emotions using imagery, color, video, sound, animation and interactivity with high tech mediums like iPad and Augmented Reality.

While many people see technology as an obstacle to connecting to their emotions, I see it as a gateway. My paintings and my AR app are tools to help us understand ourselves and each other more completely and to achieve our greatest possibilities as individuals and as a collective whole. 

Materials and Augmented Reality:

We invite you to pause, observe, and immerse yourself in the multifaceted world of Daniel Leighton’s art. These pieces are fine art, museum-quality, archival C-prints, encased in lucite or mounted on aluminum with archival laminate. By downloading the ‘Daniel Leighton Art + AR‘ app from the App Store, you can unlock the augmented reality elements of his paintings, marked with (AR), and embark on a journey of emotional and technological exploration.

Also posted in Art, Events

Technology and the Arts Exhibition: L.H. Horton Art Gallery at San Joaquin Delta College, March 5-April 3, Opening Reception March 5th

Opening Reception March 5th, 5-7pm

George by artist Daniel Leighton
George by artist Daniel Leighton

The Exhibition Features
• Interactive Digital Ecosystems
• Augmented Reality Paintings
• Digital Conversations brought into physical space
• Images and Popular Quotes Captured by Algorithms
• 3D Printed Sculpture
• Digitally Animated Sculpture
• Virtual Reality Experience

Image: Kevin Mack, “Zen Parade”, Virtual Reality Experience

The LH Horton Jr Gallery presents Technology & the Arts Exhibition, An Interactive Experience, March 5 – April 3, 2020. The Gallery Reception is planned for Thursday, March 5th, from 5:00 to 7:00pm. Admission to the Gallery exhibition, reception and Artist Talk are free and open to the public.

In addition to the exhibition, the Gallery is very excited to present an Artist Talk with Marpi Studio on March 12th at 12:30-1:30pm in the Tillie Lewis Theater, followed by a Gallery tour of the exhibition. Marpi Studio collaborators will present several of their creative projects on the intersection of technology and the arts. The presentation includes discussion on how to evolve your artistic practice into an independent and financially sound studio. They’ll share tried-and-true lessons from forming their own digital art studio, and discuss their vision for sustaining a creative business in future economies.

The exhibition is curated by Gallery Director, Jan Marlese, and features the work of seven artists whose creations are produced through a variety of computer-based technologies. Many of the works are interactive, including samples from San Francisco-based artist, Marpi, who designs vast digital ecosystems that are brought into being and shaped by users. Visitors may also engage with Daniel Leighton’s 2D printed digital paintings, which come to life through the viewer’s Gallery provided iPad. Rushali’s Silent Words brings digital conversations into physical space. Other works taking physical form include Sophia Brueckner’s commemorative plate series produced using Amazon Kindle Popular Highlight algorithm and Photoshop Photomerge algorithm. Also displayed is Can Büyükberber’s digital sculpture and animated artwork series, 3D printed sculpture by Joshua Harker, as well as augmented reality painting and 3D printed sculpture by Academy Award winning visual effects pioneer, Kevin Mack.

The exhibition was conceived on the belief that “technology and the need for new skills are shifting the workforce — requiring workers to be more creative and demanding culturally competent and innovative thinkers who are prepared to solve new global problems. Advocates for STEAM education — the intersection of science, technology, engineering, arts and math — believe it builds the habits of mind for life and work in the 21st century,” according to the Education Commission of the States 2019 policy brief, Preparing Students for Learning, Work and Life through STEAM Education.

Gallery Exhibition Hours: T 11am–4pm, W–Th 11am–6:30pm, F 11am–1pm | Posted Saturday Hours: March 7 • 11am–3pm | Closed Spring Break March 16 – 20

The Exhibition and Artist Talk is supported in-part by a grant from the Stockton Arts Commission.

L.H. Horton Art Gallery show page.

Also posted in Art, Augmented Reality, Events, Exhibitions, iPad Art, Technology Tagged , , , |

Layered Beyond: An Augmented Reality Art Exhibition In Venice, CA

Join us on Sunday February 9, from 2-5 pm for the opening of Layered Beyond: An Augmented Reality Art Exhibit featuring 12 top AR Artists.

About this Event

Layered Beyond: An Augmented Reality Art Exhibition
Join us on Sunday February 9, from 2-5 pm for the opening of Layered Beyond: An Augmented Reality Exhibition. Many of the artists will be on hand to present unique works that intergrated augmented reality into the viewing experience. Augmented Reality is a technology that superimposes computer-generated content on a user’s view of the real world– in this case works of art– thus providing a composite view and an enhanced experience. Viewing devices loaded with the software will be on hand as well as QR codes to download the different applications to viewer’s personal devices. The artists include: Bill Barminski, FLOAT (Kate Parsons and Ben Vance), John Craig Freeman, IILK (Ichiro Irie and Lucas Kazansky), Eli Joteva, Lilyan Kris, Daniel Leighton, Camila Magrane, Will Pappenheimer, Ben Sax, Jill Taffet and Jody Zellen.

Bill Barminski is best know for work in several mediums that include cardboard sculpture, advertising derived paintings and video animation. His cardboard sculptures of everyday objects such as shoes, spray cans and furniture are usually painted white and outlined in dark brown paint that capture a sense of 3 dimensional drawings. The best example of this style was the interactive Security Theater that served as the entrance to Banksy’s Dismaland in 2015. Before turning his attention to sculpture in the early 2000s, Barminski was well known for his paintings that explored themes surrounding consumerism and advertising. Barminski has also worked creating animated music videos for artists such as Gnarls Barkley, Kid Cudi and Death Cab for Cutie. Barminski, who is a primarily self taught artist, has had over 20 solo shows since 1986. He lives in Los Angeles, California, works in a garage studio and has been teaching digital media in the Department of Film and Television at UCLA since 1998.

FLOAT is a collaborative entity focusing on media art and interactivity. Founders Ben Vance and Kate Parsons work together to create evocative, nuanced art experiences that push the boundaries of process and technique. Their work has shown with Vulcan Inc., Marina Abramovic’s Acute Art VR Platform, and at prestigious locations such as SFMOMA, Art Toronto, Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, and TIFF. Their work has been featured in Art News, the LA Times, CBC, BBC News, Flaunt, Hyperallergic, and more. Collaborators and clients include Petra Cortright, United Nude, GitHub, and Tony Hawk. Their latest work, Screensavers, can be found on internet gaming platforms Steam, Oculus, Itch.io, and Viveport.

John Craig Freeman is an artist with over three decades of experience using emerging technologies to produce large-scale public work at sites where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities. With his work, he seeks to expand the notion of public by exploring how digital technology and mobile networks are transforming our sense of place. Freeman is a professor of New Media Art at Emerson College in Boston. Freeman’s contribution to the Layered Beyond exhibition is Fossil Fueled a world-scale augmented reality experience which includes a collection of virtual gas pumps, dating from the 1920s to the 1970s representing the history of fossil fuel consumption. Some have become unmoored, spinning in midair.

IILK (Ichiro Irie & Lucas Kazansky): IILK is a collaborative media-art partnership comprised of artists Ichiro Irie and Lucas Kazansky. They have exhibited at Titanik Galeria in Turku Finland; Joshua Treenial in Joshua Tree, CA, Arena 1 gallery in Santa Monica, CA, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana, CA and eitoeiko gallery in Tokyo, Japan. Irie is an artist, curator and educator who was included in the Pacific Standard Time initiative “Transpacific Borderlands” at Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA, and the traveling exhibition “To Travel with Glasses” whith iterations at prominent museums in Japan including Aomori Museum of Art in Aomori, Japan. Kazansky currently works as R&D Technical Artist Hybrid at Niantic, and previously as Senior Designer at DAQRI.

Elí Joteva is a Bulgarian born visual artist and researcher working at the intersection of fine arts and science through the use of new imaging tools and biofeedback technologies. With a practice rooted in photography and new media, her work often aims to to expand the intangible experience of the human and non-human body. The core of her current research explores biological and technological memory systems in relationship to imaging processes of the past and future. Joteva earned a BA in Fine Arts from USC Roski in 2013, an MFA from UCLA Design | Media Arts in 2018 and attended the New Normal post-grad research program at Strelka in 2019. She has exhibited solo shows in North America, Europe and Australia.

Lilyan Kris is an artist and technologist who uses software “incorrectly” to invent alternative interfaces for our bodies when mainstream technologies fail us. Lilyan’s works have been featured in group shows at museums and festivals in the United States, including the Hammer Museum, Indiecade Festival, Different Games Conference, and CultureHub Los Angeles. They’ve taught workshops at Pepperdine University, Navel, Tiny Tech Zines, and Glendale Tech Week. Lilyan holds a BA in Design Media Arts from UCLA, where they co-founded voidLab, an LA-based intersectional feminist collective for women, trans and queer people.

Daniel Leighton is an Augmented Reality artist, iPad painter, filmmaker, and technologist who started programming at the age of eleven. Having Crohn’s Disease since birth, Leighton faced his mortality from a very young age. Countless invasive procedures, hospitalizations and surgeries helped drive him to dive deep into a lifelong quest to understand the workings of his body and his emotions. He creates emotional portraits with simple lines and brilliant colors to capture complex states of the human psyche, while exploring the possibilities of technology and human emotion being harnessed for the greater good. Leighton graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley and has presented/exhibited at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the LA Center for Digital Art, and has been featured by Timothy Potts, Director of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, as well as, curators from MoCA and LACMA.

Camila Magrane is a multimedia artist originally from Caracas, Venezuela. Having a father from the us and a mother from Venezuela, she grew up alternating between both countries. Being fully exposed to two different cultures gave her a greater understanding of what it means to have various perspectives. Most recently, Camila has been exploring the involvement of technology and interactivity in art. This has driven her to obtain a bachelor of science in computer science with a concentration in game development. She continues to hone her skills as a creative coder through the creation of interactive videos, installations and games. She has been most noted for the creation of her “digital photogram collages” where she has established a postmodern aesthetic by combining traditional darkroom techniques with the use of digital tools.

Will Pappenheimer is a Brooklyn based artist working in new media, performance, video and installation with an interest in shifting virtual and physical spatial and object relations. He is a founding member of the Manifest.AR international collective which focused on locational augmented reality as a form of situational or institutional intervention. His work has been shown at Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA, Los Angeles; San Francisco MOMA; Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; FACT, Liverpool, UK; Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul; Fringe Exhibitions in Los Angeles; the ICA, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington; FILE, Sao Paulo, BR; Turbulance.org; The New Museum and the 2017 Moving Image Art Fair in New York. The artist’s works have been reviewed in Christiane Paulʼs historical editions of “Digital Art,” Art in America, New York Times, Hyperallergic.org, Bloomberg TV, WIRED, EL PAIS, Madrid, and Liberation, Paris. He teaches new media at Pace University, New York.

Ben Sax is an interactive artist, patented inventor, and storyteller based in Los Angeles. He’s the founder of Perceptoscope, an interactive public arts initiative devoted to engaging people with the places around them through interactive sculpture and immersive public media. He recieved his BA from Wesleyan University (2007) with a double major in Film Studies and Philosophy, with additional focus in interactive art, installation, and experimental music. He was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the SupplyFrame DesignLab, an Arts for LA ACTIVATE Cultural Policy Fellow, and a National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellow. His documentaries have been aired on public television and incorporated into museum exhibitions. As an Arts Scientist, his prototyping and field research have been supported by the Knight Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Jill Taffet is a time-based artist who mixes traditional drawing and painting with new technologies. Her immersive large-scale video installations, motion paintings, and new media projects have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She received her BFA from Cooper Union in New York City and her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute. Currently she is faculty at Ringling College of Art & Design.

Jody Zellen is a Los Angeles based artist who makes interactive installations, mobile apps, net art, animations, drawings, paintings, photographs, public art, and artists’ books. She constantly thinks about ways to use new technologies and to integrate interactivity into her artworks. Zellen received a BA from Wesleyan University (1983), a MFA from CalArts (1989) and a MPS degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (2009). She has been exhibiting her work locally, nationally and internationally since 1989.

Also posted in Art, Events, Exhibitions Tagged , |

Jeffrey Sklan’s “The Brush Off”

Daniel Leighton Silhouette Portrait by Jeffrey SklanI am honored and excited to have my portrait (see left) featured in LA photographer Jeffrey Sklan’s “The Brush Off” an extraordinary collection of LA artist portraits which will debut at Photo L.A. 2020 taking place from January 30th – February 2nd at Barker Hanger in Santa Monica. My portrait will be featured along with portraits of artists Dani Dodge, Kio Griffith, Steven Wolkoff, Tom Dunn, Joshua Elias, Aline Mare, Alexander Kritselis, Gary Brewer, Chenhung Chen, Bruce Dean, Ruby Vartan, Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman, Glenn Waggner, Skye Amber Sweet, Randi Matushevitz, Gay Summer Sadow Rick, Jenny Hager, Bryan Ida, Lena Moross, Sean Noyce, Nathalie Tierce, Tamara Porter Tolkin, Dwora Fried, Kim Kimbro Taylor, Jodi Bonassi, Aleksei Tivetsky, Francisco Alvarado, Lauren Mendelsohn-Bass, Melissa Reischman and many more!

Details about tickets can be found at https://www.photola.com/

Also posted in Art, Events, Exhibitions Tagged , |

Opening Up – Illness, Trauma and Transformation Through Art

Finding meaning and purpose amidst pain, tragedy and loss.

I am an artist and I suffer from Crohn’s Disease; a gastrointestinal disorder. This has resulted in six abdominal surgeries, as well as, the removal of my colon and part of my small intestine. The disease has caused a lifetime of pain and suffering. Art has provided me with the tools to transform that pain and anguish into beauty and healing. Line and color provide a conduit through which I can reach into the deepest part of myself and share the treasures that lie within.

This has been a war — the life or death battles, the inability to process emotion while trying to simply survive — but it is not the war we see on TV, online or in print. It is a much more familiar war, one that takes place in the human heart as we struggle to find meaning and purpose amidst pain, tragedy and loss.

2013-05-24-OpeningUpbyDanielLeighton1000x1364300dpi.jpg

This painting is called Opening Up. It represents a moment in time during the process of transformation. The figure in the painting is exposing himself, opening up his wound and finding beauty and treasure where there had once been pain and agony. He is opening himself up now, whereas in the past he had been opened by others. He is still too vulnerable to look at the viewer, so he looks away as he exposes himself. He wears a mask and a full body suit as an added layer of protection, to boost personal power and offset trauma.

I was first hospitalized in the mid ‘70s, around the age of five. It was a horrifying experience; both because of the procedures I went through and because of the way they were handled by the people who performed them. I felt dehumanized during this experience, because I always knew that if they saw me on a human level, at the level of their heart, they would have handled things differently. Instead, they taped me up, tied me down, and shoved a tube down my throat, leaving me defenseless and completely vulnerable. This was the first in a relentless series of traumas, physical and emotional, medical and otherwise, which still haunt me today.

Trauma occurs when the amount of emotional energy, which is generated from an event, exceeds the amount that is discharged afterward. As a five year old, I did not know what trauma was or what to do with these feelings. Something inside of me did, though, and it ignited a quest to find a way to process what happened and find peace again.

Trauma occurs when the amount of emotional energy, which is generated from an event, exceeds the amount that is discharged afterward.

I decided early on that after everything I had gone through and everything I had to deal with on a daily basis, I refused to be unhappy. After all of the pain and suffering, shame, fear and humiliation, insane choices regarding treatment options and the innumerable challenges I faced, I was determined to make it all mean something. Painting is that something.

I see feelings as images. Before I started painting, I spent a lot of time trying to explain to people (friends, family, therapists) what I was seeing in order to get them to understand what was happening inside of me. That never worked all that well. Eventually I turned to filmmaking. I received a degree in film from UC Berkeley and won a few awards along the way. Though I still love making films, painting has given me a level of artistic satisfaction I had never experienced before.

Several years ago, I experienced a major flare-up of my Crohn’s Disease. My doctors couldn’t explain what or why this was happening and I knew that this was something beyond their scope of treatment. The symptoms were not unfamiliar: diarrhea, spasming in my throat and stomach, piercing headaches, back pains, nausea and fatigue. I started to sketch to express myself and to be able to show some of the people close to me these visions that I had been trying to describe in words for all of these years.

During that time, as difficult and painful as it was, I discovered something wonderful; I drew and I painted and I felt better. Spasms and pain would ease and I was releasing some of the emotional energy that I had held within for so many years. I discovered that I had the ability to portray emotions I had once believed I was all alone with and that people who saw my work, whatever their circumstances, were moved by it. Perhaps most importantly, I could draw and paint for hours on end and I always felt better when I did; I had found my calling.

The piece above was originally published on The Huffington Post

Also posted in Art, Biographical, Crohn's/Ulcerative Colitis, Health, Inspiring, PTSD, Writing Tagged , , |

The Patient-Artist Experience @ Misericordia University

"Faces and Traces" by Artist Daniel Leighton

“Faces and Traces” by Artist Daniel Leighton

Duration: Academic year Fall 2019-Spring 2020

Exhibition period: 8/26/2019  to 5/31/2020

Location: Misericordia University, Trocaire Building lobby and other public spaces. Available for view during building normal operating hours (~8am-~8pm)

Co-curated with California-based artist and patient advocate Ted Meyer, this exhibit features artists whose work stems from their experiences as patients. These paintings, prints, and photographs will be on display in the lobby and public areas of the Trocaire Building for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Objective

To infuse the creative arts into the daily experience of students in the College of Health Sciences and Education through exhibition and curriculum integration. To provide creative artists with health challenges or disabilities with opportunities to present their work to new audiences as both art objects and autobiographical artistic narratives. 

Underlying themes

  • How health issues and limitations propel creativity and artistic pursuit
  • How healthcare professionals can broaden their ideas of who their patients and patient caregivers are by encouraging creativity and personal expression

Artists

Also posted in Art, Exhibitions

“Thoughts and Prayers and ????” (2018)

Thoughts and Prayers and ???? by artist Daniel Leighton

“Thoughts and Prayers and ????” (2018) – When will we put an end to this insanity?

As of this moment, there have been 307 mass shootings in America in 2018. When are we going to put an end to this insanity?

Also posted in Art

Arrival – Arriving Into The Present Moment

Arrival (2012) by Daniel Leighton

Arrival (2012) by Daniel Leighton

“Arrival” (2012) I had this feeling yesterday…when I arrived in the present after an intense swirl of activity, I felt a wide mix of emotions. The primary one was sadness. It was for a lot of things, old and current. It was also for how much I had been away from myself and for the many emotions I had deferred because I didn’t think I had the time to feel them in the moment. This painting gave me a way of communicating that feeling to the person I was with. Now, it reminds me to slow down.

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An Ocean of Concrete

An Ocean of Concrete(2012) by Daniel Leighton

An Ocean of Concrete by Daniel Leighton

“An Ocean of Concrete” (2011) – the drawing for this painting came out between the inspiration for, and the painting of, “Return of the Boy Genius” (2011). I’ve always been fascinated by how it happened. I was doing the dishes and suddenly “Return of the Boy Genius” came to me all at once. I ran from the kitchen sink to my iPad to start drawing while it was still fresh in my head, but ”An Ocean of Concrete” came out. It was my subconscious mind and body at work. I didn’t really understand what each was about until later. When I did, the order made perfect sense. “An Ocean of Concrete” is about the feeling of being stuck and powerless. “Return of the Boy Genius” is about moving on from that feeling and returning to your roots — to who you are and who you have always been deep down, even if it’s hard and scary and you’re not sure you are capable.

If you’re coming from that place of “stuckness”, it must be acknowledged and recognized before you can move to someplace closer to where you want to be.

Return of the Boy Genius (2012) by Daniel Leighton

Return of the Boy Genius (2012) by Daniel Leighton

Also posted in Art