Welcome to Leap4artnyc

My name and social media handle are important to my website. Many people find my last name difficult to spell, and there is another artist whose last name has two n’s. The word “Leap” is also special to me.I first used LEAP as the name of our nonprofit program: Learning English Adult Program. We helped immigrants and refugees learn to listen, to speak, to read, and to write in English. Three years after the program began, LEAP was unable to secure adequate funding and, alas, had to close. After LEAP closed, I taught composition, research writing, and technology classes at Marymount Manhattan College, City College of New York, and New York University (NYU). I began my studies at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education and was later accepted as a doctoral candidate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. I earned my degree in 2006.

When I wasn’t teaching, I read and marked and graded papers. And yet, I still found time to paint. All of this was done where I lived with my husband, two golden retrievers, a Siamese, and a tabby in the second bedroom of my Manhattan apartment. It was as if I leaped into art. And my practice from that one class lead me to paint my first watercolor which won an honorable mention at the Arts Council of Moore County in NC where we had moved. And in 2010 or 2011, I put Artist on cards with my name, phone and email address.

Throughout this website, I may show finished paintings and photographs for sale. I will also show the process if not progress of my paintings and or photographs. You will see also my first badly made reels to improved reels of my work from Instagram. And once in a while I will tell you what inspired this work. Thus, this introduction combines a tad of my history, my feelings and/or beliefs about art, artists, and painting. I also tiptoe into my philosophy about artists who are excellent, but cannot or do not teach. And my most favorite artists, who explain, go over things, do not paint on our paintings. Better yet are the artists who do all of this but also treat us not just like humans but like colleagues.

I have been a writer, occasionally published, a painter who worked and worked, and where critics occasionally liked my work, and finally, I became brave enough to show my photos. Art for me is more than just a painting. Art encompasses photography, pottery, and more. My art has greatly changed. I believe that my creative process is not only influenced by my past practices, readings, and studies, but, most importantly, also by my health ‍

As you will learn, I am different. I want people to see, to read, to feel, and to remember my art and to remember me. I believe that those who read my introductions to paintings on the website, on Instagram Instagram, or a blog will remember my thoughts and work longer than than most people remember an artist’s statement!  Why? You see, verbs have action. Statements, on the other hand, need quotation marks inside of a lot of other words.

I will be 75 on October 11th. I have had some very good beginner art classes. Some of these were taught by positive artists and thinkers. I have also had some bad classes, where critiques were based more on opinions or someone's personal work and not based from either art history or demonstrations. I believe that all of the practice, study, work to our first few layers, color mixing, blocking, crossing out or even starting over has a great deal to do with our present and our past lives. Whether we are aware or not, these also have to do with our health. For me, and perhaps for others, these have not only influenced my skills but at times they have also interfered with my abilities.

For those of you who have read my web pages, my instagram blurbs and more, my health has changed. Science, improved technology and more have demonstrated that I do not have Multiple Sclerosis. I have learned, however, that I do have the beginnings of Alzheimer’s. Some of these tests are relatively new for Alzheimer’s testing. These include the blood test P-tau 17, a Pet Scan, and a Neuro Psych test. I do not yet know the full results of what stage or level I am. I can say the generic drug for Aricept is a help.

I have known something is and was wrong. I asked for the test. Yes there was and is an ongoing “yikes” “really I’m right” and more. I stopped painting long enough that my faithful audience on instagram noticed. A mentor/critic of mine wrote me email and I back. I finally could look at other artists’ reels and works. Slowly I began to paint again. I am honest. Some of the first few paintings were not even good enough to try to make into digital art. Yes, all artists are hard on themselves. To me if we were not this way we wouldn’t continue to grow.I have read about the art of some artists with alzheimer’s and dementia. This made me continue to paint, continue to take photos, and most importantly to think or, perhaps to decide, how much my work will change or how I may change my art, sort of like a top spinning.

Right now I work with both methods from the past and from what my notes from what I learned recently. I will go back to my use of vivid colors and perhaps try some of the old flower methods “bursts” that colleagues loved. Most importantly, I will add the few tricks I have learned from the excellent artists both of whom taught us well and treated us like artists, not like kids or students. I therefore believe that both my website and my social media handle are a good place for me to be. @leap4artnyc on most social media————https://leap4artnyc.com Do feel free to email me with any comments or questions you might have.