Michael Leavitt

Since 2004, I’ve made my living in the studio telling stories in the form of visual art. In that time, I’ve written extensively about the art world but 2020 marked the first time I’d written long-form fiction. Now it's naturally extending my art portfolio, commenting on the icons of a world gone mad, with a tongue firmly planted in-cheek. My themes also touch on an individual's place amongst others, and how this place shifts between both physical and metaphysical worlds.

My craft is born of life events, especially recently. Since 2016, shifts in the art world, the passing of my father, and the arrival of my first child have wildly altered my creative process. But it wasn't until 2020 when I realized how therapeutic the act of storytelling was for a story teller. So I'm carving stories in a mobile "studio" now - with my laptop and active imagination. I find myself liberated to take this studio anywhere and craft countless narratives I could never sculpt or paint in a lifetime of making traditional art. My calling keeps me whole, the real world is controversial enough, and telling stories is the place I go to make sense of it all.

I think being enthralled inside a great story is the freest place for anyone to be.