Artist Statement:
I am an ardent observer of life’s visual rhythms and fleeting moments. I am especially interested in the relationships and patterns that we create during our lives, which over time, come to define us and make us definable to others. 
I look for patterns that we create through our living: relationships with natural forces and objects, models created through encounters with other people- travel, shelter, struggle, habit, and with our own genetic makeup. With my work, I hope to communicate simplicity and complexity simultaneously.

When I make work, I set out to make a unique object that draws from the way I look and perceive the world that I live in. Sometimes this process relies on some specific visual element or artifact from my various backgrounds (as a mixed-race person, as a father, as an ocean dweller, and as a teacher), sometimes it is implied, and other times it exists very quietly in between the layers of paint and material.

This sampling of work was conceptualized and created during my one-year sabbatical from teaching duties at Diablo Valley College where I am a tenured professor in the art department. Some of the work is still in progress, while some are completed ideas. The studio projects are corporate commissions (Adobe Inc.  Birkenstock), public art proposals (SFAC, City of Napa), experiments, and completed paintings based on observations from travels to places of importance to me in my small RV.

I want to thank the generosity of the Contra Costa Community College District, Diablo Valley College, my colleagues in the DVC Art Department, and my students for their generosity, and support in gifting me this time to be creative and connected to my studio practice.

-Leo Bersamina