LEAH MONSON
APRIL 9-10 // shared home studio off the kitchen // minneapolis, mn
Leah is a visual merchandiser and abstract painter with experience in brand-focused display creation, custom art installation, and material handling. She is currently based in Minneapolis.
leahmonson.com
I set an intention for these two days to work in a very specific way - structuring my time by painting for an hour then breaking for 15 minutes (Pomodoro Technique) by doing an “unrelated” activity to fuel the work like reading, taking walks, napping, etc. I loosely intended to finish one small painting and one large - both of which I had already started prior to the residency period.
I wanted to participate in Shelter as a way to formalize the work I was already doing, challenge my current ways of working, and to engage with a larger community outside of my generally isolated practice - especially in these weird times.
Starting work is the easiest part of the process for me given that it is often motivated by the need to just get extra paint off a brush or use up leftovers from a palette I want to clean, so I’ll lay down whatever colors I have going as an underpainting. I have about twenty-five small paintings (anywhere from 3x3” to 11 x 13”) and five large (3 x 4’) that I’m working on simultaneously. With so many pieces going at once, I don’t experience the full gratification of seeing something through start to finish in a single sitting or short period of time. It was satisfying and in some ways beneficial to focus solely on completing two pieces during this condensed working window.
