An intention that I have is to express connections felt to a myriad of artists and thinkers throughout time – Sung Dynasty painters, poets, and calligraphers, Cezanne, Matisse, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Rumi, and Krishnamurti, to name a few. 

What I seek through painting is an experience that while of me, also transcends me, and from which, something is revealed.  I meet each new surface with a sense of discovery and joy, but with no concept or preconceived idea.  My attention is devoted to the process and responding to what presents itself.

Music informs my movements and offers me entrance into the dance of creation.  In this dance, I find cadence, interlude, tonality and the arabesque.  Working alternately on the easel and on the floor, my work becomes “breathed” as it moves successively from upright to prone. I often discover landscape or figurative elements in my work.  If preserved, I seek only to retain their ephemeral qualities. 

The moment of completion, which becomes a tender moment that is sensed, occurs for me when the conversation that exists within a particular painting draws to a close or trails off.  It is a moment in which there is a recognition that anything added detracts from the essence, and it is also a recognition that each conversation continues, at a different time, and in a different way. 

- Leila Foti Sharma