Cooking, Art, and the Bold, Beautiful Work of Fiona Leitner

- I make images like i cook

- I cook like i make images

- I am fishing for eyecandy

~Fiona Leitner

Fiona Leitner is a spirited, engaging artist whom I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for a few months now. Her playful, wickedly funny personality comes through in her work, as well as some darker, more serious undertones. She’s a woman who is never afraid to express an opinion, and she’s a delight to chat with. She was kind enough to make time with me, and joined me at the AvatarStyle office to talk about cooking, art, and what makes her tick. Enjoy!

I love your artist’s statement. Tell me more about how cooking informs your art and where you seek inspiration for “ingredients.”

I really love cooking and I hardly ever cook from a recipe, so I find stuff in the fridge and think, “I am going to make something like Italian, French, or whatever. Sometimes I need to go to the store to fetch something and end up with a completely different meal than planned. It’s the same when I make images—I render material, save them in a folder, and layer them in Photoshop. I start cooking and I see what comes up.

Where do you find the images? Do you create them all?

I use image generating programs like fractals…but not only fractals.

Cool.

Hot…lolol

So everything is digital…which is interesting, because some of your work looks as if it’s on RL canvas.

Yes there are filters with which you can achieve that. There is never any RL material in there.

How long does it take to “cook” a   particular work?

It is taking longer and longer. In the beginning   when I started – in October or November, it took like 15 minutes. I ‘found’ images that I liked and that was it. But now I often work with 15 or 20 layers in Photoshop before I am satisfied with the eyecandy.

I love eyecandy…

Don’t we all? It’s like music is earcandy.

So did you start as an artist in ’09 or did you start in SL in ’09?

I started in SL like a year ago almost. I do graphic design work in RL, so I am used to working with Photoshop, but I’ve hardly ever done a painting. I can’t draw, but I know about composition and color…all artforms. I hate that word because it sounds posh.

I was going to say, you clearly understand art as composition.

All artforms are part of the same language—artforms being means of expression I think.

Yes, I agree. It’s all the same family.

The same rules apply to all means of expression. Like Bukowski said: every sentence has got to be juicyyyyyy

Tell me about how other art forms inform you, how you find eyecandy in music, for example.

Well, music is the lanuage of the heart I would say. So, how many chords are used the instruments,  the colors! The rhythm, the volume—these are all ingredients that more or less apply to images too. The only thing is, it’s invisible, and the canvas is time.

So you’re translating and encapsulating, in a way.

Fiona Leitner: No.

Cleo Tebaldi smiles

I try to stay free of unneeded stuff in my head when I “work.” Or rather “play.” The most important thing is to try to be open, and that is hardest too, but the material needs to flow.

I see so many different things in your work, from cells and veins to cello scrolls to leaf patterns…do you have any of those in mind when you work, or do they emerge, or am I applying too much to the work?

I know it is all in there, and I love it when they show up and decide that those elements are keepers when I see them. But I never know what will show up really. I am surprised 80% of the time.

Oh wow, so you surprise yourself. I think that’s true for a lot of artists. Do you ever have a sense of the finished work before you start?

No. Not ever. Hahahahah…that’s what makes it fun.

So it’s a completely open process. Like jazz.

Jazz is so …………….full of shit

Okay, improvisation, then.

hahahaha…ok—better.

LOL

Digital art allows you a kind of scale and flexibility that a traditional canvas-and-paint wouldn’t. In what other ways is it more freeing?

So freeing—no material costs, no rent for a studio, nothing is permanent. And the programs are so good nowadays, you get amazing results without being able to draw a line. But then again, there is always the matter of good taste. You need to make the right choices.

Right. Or you end up with a mess.

Tons of times in the process. Yes. Easily.

So what’s in the future for you? Have any upcoming shows?

I’ll be at Maryva Mayo’s Gallery first – in August, then at Artis in September, and I was going to exhibit at PiRats in july but have not heard from them yet. I am always at S&S—that is my home gallery. And i am working in Inworldz with Stefanik Dagostino of the S&S Gallery of Fine Arts. Inworldz is another grid, and Stefanik has two sims there. He does real great work there.

Thank you for your time with me!

Fiona’s other current shows: Art Coup/Kunstgalerie; Ice Caverns.