I’m a queerdo currently residing in the SF Bay Area, living my best life dancing in the liminal space between dichotomies. One fateful semester during my college years, I fell in love with hammering metals in Dawn Nakaishi’s Jewelry/Small Scale Metalsmithing class. I’ve since built a home studio in which I explore adornment and wearable art.
L M deLeon
she/they
"Drawn to the debris of industrial practices, interesting nature tidbits, that which glitters, makes bold shapes or has bright color. Gathered bits are a love song of the city & nature. Focusing on the liminal space between dichotomies, strung taut between fascination for human ingenuity, bemused by our penchant for generating detritus and my awe of the slower pace of the seasons, tides, nature's cyclical deconstruction in which nothing is wasted. Coveting the cast off or remnants of a whole."
“More recently I've a growing awareness of who I am at the core of my being that has helped me to explore becoming open and forthright about myself in ways that never felt safe in my youth. In the past I’ve shrunk myself to fit into other people’s expectations (spoken or assumed), feeling shame and anger at this impingement upon my own ability to wholly be. That burden holding me back from acceptance is lifting from my shoulders with deepening awareness and re-centering of self saturating every aspect of my life - my sexuality, who I am as a parent, as a partner and spouse, a friend, the ways in which I conduct myself at work, my approaches to creative endeavors and how I express myself out in the world publicly. I feel like I am slowly unfurling, revealing hints of vibrant color when caught in the light and simultaneously grounding, with a stability that resembles the roots of a tree.”
What does [queerphoria] mean to you? This can be something felt, experienced, or made.
“When I consider if my queerness has ever played a role in the choice of materials and techniques I choose to incorporate into my work, I think subconsciously it must. But it’s never been something I’ve expressed through art purposefully as I have hesitated to publicly acknowledge being queer for many decades. But when I think about the pieces I generate - I cannot separate them from the whole body, mind and soul compulsion to build colorful creations with these materials I happen upon. They become an extension of self and a reflection of the joy I find in the work.”
What does being queer mean to you in relation to your material choices? Is it something you consider?
Epaulettes No. 01, copper, telecommunication wire, stainless steel,
sterling silver, glass, pearl, amethyst, tourmaline, fiber 2020
“I have always recognized queerness in myself. So I suppose my work is queer in the sense that I am queer. But the my work is not necessarily centered around queerness, as this is only one of the many facets of who I am.”
Is the work queer because the maker is queer, or is it queer because the subject matter is queer?
Crown No. 01, brass, gold fill wire, telecommunication wire, pearls, citrine, glass, shell, fiber,2021
“My studio practice has always been a safe space for me to play and explore within. Self expression takes on a key role as all of the work I create is ultimately for myself first. It is within this realm I allow barriers (real or imagined) to be broken down. What do I want to make? What do I want to wear? What excites me? How wild do I want to go? Whoooohoo-ho-hooo 🎵
I was avidly watching the Art21 series when I was first introduced to the work of Andrea Zittel. She was discussing her uniform series, wherein she would make one perfect outfit to wear exclusively for each season. Not too long after, I had the opportunity to view 10 years worth of her uniforms in person and I came away from the show utterly inspired.
Around 2014 I made a set of uniform dresses I would wear daily for the next four years. I designed them to be complementary to the new series of jewelry I was just beginning to explore, Color Bound. This series was born of a lengthy, notoriously unpredictable Bay Area commute, leaving me frequently in bumper to bumper traffic. Bored & scanning the stuff accumulated in the medians of the freeway, a rainbow of neatly bundled telecommunication wire in a triangle patch of a merged median caught my eye. I jumped out of my truck in stopped traffic and stole the bundle of wires. After many evenings spent meticulously untangling the mass of wires and organizing them into neatly chromatic bundles, I was finally ready to explore the material. What emerged from my research was a series of sculptural and geometric forms, made with traditional metalsmithing techniques and combined with fiber craft.
Both the uniform and the jewelry are a reflection of my obsession with slow fashion. Unlike Andrea Zittel, I haven’t made a fresh series of uniforms for every season, but I have continued the practice of making multiples of a single design and/or creating a series of pieces from this lightweight denim bolt I’ve been steadily trying to use up for a few years. Whatever pieces I choose to make, I want them to look good with any jewelry I might wear.”
What role does your studio practice play in your identity- if at all?
“I am always considering the relationship between the pieces and the wearer, that by donning them they become another modality of self expression. I make things for myself first and thus, by extension, my community.”
When creating your work, do you consider the relationship your object has with the viewer?
Casual Tiara No. 01, copper, telecommunication wire, fiber, 20 1/4" diameter, 2 1/2" height, 2015
“Another part of my artistic self does openly explore gender expression and sexuality in some very delightful ways - I have designed, built and perform with skeleton puppets that occasionally make an appearance on the most random tiny stages - they can be found under @boneybonheur “