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anna-marie lopez de leon Biography
Surfacing from a violent series of suicide attempts and hospitalizations, the result of
crippling depression, Anna-Marie Lopez de Leon turned her ravaged life around and began
painting in her early twenties when she became inspired by an older established artist who
took the young Lopez de Leon in, seeing her raw talent, mentoring and teaching her,
teaching the artists craft and encouraging her to consider painting as a career. The turbulent
relationship both inspired and crushed Lopez de Leon, a dichotomy in life she continues to
incorporate in her sometimes blunt, raw and achingly disturbing portraits and dreamscapes.
Rendered in contrasting bright plumes of colour and hard dark lines, Lopez de Leon's work
is at once a mirage of emotions vying for attention and the heartache of her abuse opening
its richly decorated palm and bleeding onto canvas. While living in NYC Lopez de Leon
worked by day in art stores learning her craft and honing her distinctive masculine style
incorporating muted dark images with bright bursts of light and edgy distorted figures
captured in unguarded moments. By night she juggled the fickle music world where she
managed several rock bands, exposing her to the underbelly of big city life and intoxicating
her enthusiasm for passionate expression and the unheard voices of the city that profoundly
affected the young Texan with their bloody life dramas.
Coming from the staid confines of Texas, Lopez de Leon longed for acceptance, and peace
from her inner-turmoil. Her work reflects this longing, and a gradual realization that she
could not avoid her demons but can depict them in the hollow-faces, splayed and flayed
limbs of her starving images, picking grit from their steaming guts and living through a web
of suffering much as the artist has succeeded in doing.
A native Texas the move to New York expanded Lopez de Leon's circle of influence and
allowed her to develop a style of her own away from the limited circles of a-typical Hispanic
art to include her unapologetic perspectives of mental health and torment. Continually
battling suicidal urges, the flirtations of manic episodes and the fiery holes of depression,
Lopez de Leon's life has been one of contrast and pain interspersed with prolonged periods
of extreme creativity and output. In Lopez's recent work, her maturing perspective treats us to
a realm of darkness and light, denial and exposure, religious fervour and pain and pleasure.
Less afraid, less tongue-tied and shy, Lopez de Leon's expression demands attention and
is at once, artfully repulsive, beautiful and shocking. Her life spent covering her scars,
assisting struggling artists and observing American culture on the streets of New York has
constructed a universe of sensitive voyeurism, genderless anger and a cocktail of highs and
lows, that weave like a late night song into the psyche, reminding us, if we are an artist, we
have no choice but to expose our lives, twitching on the vivisection table, over-and-over again
until the climaxing ache inside is assuaged. Lopez de Leon's influences often oblique and
risque, range from her Sephardic heritage, her travels in the media industry and most
importantly, her God and love of Christianity in a distinct and pure form that often butts heads
with organized (and exclusionary) religion.
Lopez de Leon's Latino roots are explored through her homage to the artist Alice Neel,
Konstantine Bokov, Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo, inspired by but not mimicking their flair for
the extraordinary and the flamboyant, imbued with a quiet terror, Lopez de Leon sees pieces
of her own conflict in such artists lives and those street artists she was exposed to in New
York.
Now with her own studio, a body of work behind her, and her most beloved muse at her
side, Lopez de Leon finds time for contemplation and self-examination that lends her
painting a greater breadth and sense of history and location pouring darkness out into a cup
light enough for reflection. Finding love later in life has breathed renewed energy into Lopez
de Leon's desire to leave imprints of her experiences, now finding inspiration in not only the
aftermath of suffering and battle with depression, but the smiling irony of deepest love.
Her life is also divided in time spent with her father as he descends into the darkness of
Alzheimer's and her Charity LAMANA feeding the homeless and undocumented immigrants
living under the bridge in San Antonio. She stills takes her occasional trip to her beleoved
Mexico and family. And is working on two books.
crippling depression, Anna-Marie Lopez de Leon turned her ravaged life around and began
painting in her early twenties when she became inspired by an older established artist who
took the young Lopez de Leon in, seeing her raw talent, mentoring and teaching her,
teaching the artists craft and encouraging her to consider painting as a career. The turbulent
relationship both inspired and crushed Lopez de Leon, a dichotomy in life she continues to
incorporate in her sometimes blunt, raw and achingly disturbing portraits and dreamscapes.
Rendered in contrasting bright plumes of colour and hard dark lines, Lopez de Leon's work
is at once a mirage of emotions vying for attention and the heartache of her abuse opening
its richly decorated palm and bleeding onto canvas. While living in NYC Lopez de Leon
worked by day in art stores learning her craft and honing her distinctive masculine style
incorporating muted dark images with bright bursts of light and edgy distorted figures
captured in unguarded moments. By night she juggled the fickle music world where she
managed several rock bands, exposing her to the underbelly of big city life and intoxicating
her enthusiasm for passionate expression and the unheard voices of the city that profoundly
affected the young Texan with their bloody life dramas.
Coming from the staid confines of Texas, Lopez de Leon longed for acceptance, and peace
from her inner-turmoil. Her work reflects this longing, and a gradual realization that she
could not avoid her demons but can depict them in the hollow-faces, splayed and flayed
limbs of her starving images, picking grit from their steaming guts and living through a web
of suffering much as the artist has succeeded in doing.
A native Texas the move to New York expanded Lopez de Leon's circle of influence and
allowed her to develop a style of her own away from the limited circles of a-typical Hispanic
art to include her unapologetic perspectives of mental health and torment. Continually
battling suicidal urges, the flirtations of manic episodes and the fiery holes of depression,
Lopez de Leon's life has been one of contrast and pain interspersed with prolonged periods
of extreme creativity and output. In Lopez's recent work, her maturing perspective treats us to
a realm of darkness and light, denial and exposure, religious fervour and pain and pleasure.
Less afraid, less tongue-tied and shy, Lopez de Leon's expression demands attention and
is at once, artfully repulsive, beautiful and shocking. Her life spent covering her scars,
assisting struggling artists and observing American culture on the streets of New York has
constructed a universe of sensitive voyeurism, genderless anger and a cocktail of highs and
lows, that weave like a late night song into the psyche, reminding us, if we are an artist, we
have no choice but to expose our lives, twitching on the vivisection table, over-and-over again
until the climaxing ache inside is assuaged. Lopez de Leon's influences often oblique and
risque, range from her Sephardic heritage, her travels in the media industry and most
importantly, her God and love of Christianity in a distinct and pure form that often butts heads
with organized (and exclusionary) religion.
Lopez de Leon's Latino roots are explored through her homage to the artist Alice Neel,
Konstantine Bokov, Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo, inspired by but not mimicking their flair for
the extraordinary and the flamboyant, imbued with a quiet terror, Lopez de Leon sees pieces
of her own conflict in such artists lives and those street artists she was exposed to in New
York.
Now with her own studio, a body of work behind her, and her most beloved muse at her
side, Lopez de Leon finds time for contemplation and self-examination that lends her
painting a greater breadth and sense of history and location pouring darkness out into a cup
light enough for reflection. Finding love later in life has breathed renewed energy into Lopez
de Leon's desire to leave imprints of her experiences, now finding inspiration in not only the
aftermath of suffering and battle with depression, but the smiling irony of deepest love.
Her life is also divided in time spent with her father as he descends into the darkness of
Alzheimer's and her Charity LAMANA feeding the homeless and undocumented immigrants
living under the bridge in San Antonio. She stills takes her occasional trip to her beleoved
Mexico and family. And is working on two books.
