Broad Strokes: Portland’s Leah Hugon’s Experimental Art

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Kemea Smith, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Emergence Leah H.

Emergence by Leah Hugon

Leah Hugon creates art that makes you take a closer look, using experimental materials like moss, silk leaves, found wood, and plexiglass. Her art takes on a variety of topics ranging from shared behaviors between animals and humans, to the struggles of body image.

“There is not a singular title to my latest work, but it is the product of my struggle with weight and body image, something that I think every single American woman can relate to,” says Hugon.

Hugon got her start at Oral Roberts University, a private Christian college in Oklahoma.

“I was religious," she says, "but going there made me less religious.”

After moving to Portland three years ago, she noticed her work changing from clean and industrial to experimental.

“I moved here for all the nature, and I feel that there is enough about nature in Portland," Hugon says. "I’m always trying to use my intuition and create something different.”

Her work has been shown at several group shows such as The Big 400, a solo exhibition at Burnside Brewing Company and has been featured at many Roll the Dice evemts with fellow local artists.

GoLocalPDX: When did you realize you had artistic talent?

LH: When I was in first or second grade I figured out that I could erase the lines in coloring books, so I started redrawing portions of each page to improve their composition. I also ensured that my 98-plus Crayola crayon set was always organized in what I called "rainbow order." These were early signs of how important color and design were to the core of who I am. Drawing came later in third and fourth grade when I was able to accurately redraw the little animal decorations my elementary school teachers used to decorate their rooms.

What is your medium of choice?

I primarily paint with acrylics, incorporating mixed media techniques into my work. My work as a whole has an experimental nature. My intention is to use traditional methods in new ways, always pushing the boundaries of what is expected of the media.

Enough Leah H.

Enough by Leah Hugon

Whose work do you admire?

Mostly right now local artists that I've met from working in Portland.

One of my studio mates, Sara Jo Schultz, has work that is aesthetically interesting and complete. I admire the time and effort she puts into her work and how amazing the work looks when it's complete.

I love the work of a collage artist from Arkansas named Michael Church. His art is smart and perfect, playing with the elements of design in new and exciting ways.

These are all qualities I try to emulate in my art, while keeping an original approach and honest communication. Any time I see artists that have a beautiful mix of intelligence, balance, and pure expression I am attracted to their work.

Who is your muse?

Not a person but an experience, or the sum of many. I would say life. Just being alive, interacting with the world and the people in it. I relish this.

How has your artistic style changed?

Both my style and my process has changed - they have evolved together. I work from collage for the subject matter of my paintings. Early on I was really attracted to vintage images, old cowboys, creepy pictures of people who had been dead for a century or two, and anything National Geographic circa 1970s. I found that working from a static collage presented some challenges in the design of my paintings. So I stopped gluing the images down and started loosely taping them together, which led to me moving them around and then sketching preliminary drawings of the painting before beginning to paint it.

Planning things out in this way led me to realize I wanted to use more commercial media in my work, and that I wanted to take the images up and out of the rigid box of the traditional canvas. I started using Plexiglas as a building material in my paintings ( which also at this point had almost as much drawing as painting). After the first series of three paintings using the Plexiglas I moved on to do two additional ones with it and am now planning a series of four more.

How has it stayed the same?

Even though creating mixed media work has led me to add drawing into my paintings, I still love the act of painting and the look of traditional painting techniques. My painting style has carried through into my new work. It is both painterly and stylistic.

Are you working on a new art collection? What is the title of it? What is your inspiration?

I am working on a series of four new works based on political inequality, economic, sexual, and religious. I was inspired by witnessing the Occupy movement, the impact it had and failed to have, and the growing discontent our culture is experiencing with the "American Dream."