I have always made art. It is an irrepressible impulse and not a choice as a visual artist.
I have travelled throughout the world and this has influenced the variety of media I use: oil paint, watercolour,
machine-based embroidery, murals, batik and mosaics to name a few.
I love appropriating and reinterpreting found images: famous artworks (Hogarth, Velasquez, Durer),
clip art, hardware catalogues, religious iconography, street art.
I have a background in community development and activism, and I approach people with curiosity, compassion,
and a belief in social justice.
I am inspired to make art about the best and worst of human nature and the social conditions.
I perpetually vacillate between joy and nihilism.
My life has been an extraordinary adventure, often consisting of peaks and troughs with not a lot of space in between.
For me, art reaches the places that words can't and helps me make sense of a bumpy ride.
I will make art for as long as I am capable.
Leon Fernandes