PARAGRAPH FOR LEO RAY’S CATALOG

Art is a very narrow bridge to Ayoka* lands.

Painting is an attempt to create an identity card that would serve as an entrance pass to the temporary camp of those who try to understand a source of vitality.

One who confronts a blank page daily, knows that it is impossible to stay emotionaly uninvolved while placing forms and colors according to their priority.

The painter mobilizes his life experience like a basting stitch binding together different layers and twining them in place, in order to report changes within ourselves and within our environment.

A variety of techniques is used with the freshness of someone who has never painted before. Each brush stroke is for the painter like a new backpack adventure. Leo does not decide what’s permitted and what’s forbidden in his interpretations. Where will the truck take the painting – a dovecot opening where the wings are fluttering, dreams are blowing and cats are frightened; perhaps they are carried there against their will. There is a fine line between the wisdom of the all-knowing commentator and his seriousness in wishing to expand himself, and between the clown who reduces his experiences to a small bubble. The skill required to blow this bubble inspires admiration and awe for the limitless human ability to reduce and condense.

*Ayoka lands – mythological lands. Ayoka: one who causes joy (editor’s note)

2006