Artist: Matthew Leavell | Location: Foster, VA
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Artist: Matthew Leavell | Location: Foster, VA
Foster, VA
Matthew J. Leavell is a self-taught artist and sculptor currently producing work in metal and other durable media at his Mobjack, VA studio. Matthew's artistic journey was a winding one, including years spent mastering a variety of trades while engaging in creative pursuits as varied as restoring and living on an old sailboat, single-handedly building his young family's home, or designing and building themed interiors for businesses catering to young children. Matthew brings a certain pragmatism and near fanatical attention to detail gained during those years to his artistic work, believing that an artist honors an artistic concept by rendering it with skill and care. Matthew often works with recycled and salvaged raw materials, seeing the transformation of a rusted, neglected, or discarded piece of steel into a beautiful work of art as an analogy of the redemptive nature of the human experience and the enduring potential for new life to spring from the most desolate of situations. While the weighty themes of redemption, hope, and new life permeate Matthew's work, he attempts to remain mindful of the sufficiency of an created object of beauty devoid of any tie to a deeper theme. He firmly believes that sometimes the best response an artist can give to the question "why" is "because it is beautiful."