Based out of Durango, Colorado, Leaf Kizior creates eco-centered, whimsical and intuitive oil paintings. Originally from the Chicago area, Leaf began her artistic career heavily-schooled in realism, but always drawn to the bright and fanciful. Leaf has won countless awards, grants and scholarships for her art since early childhood, and was given great encouragement and support from many teachers and professors along the way. Influenced by her deep fulfillment in nature, her grandmothers’ love of and talent in both folk art and handicrafts, as well as by well-known artists such as Marc Chagall and Vincent van Gogh, Leaf so began her path down the road of personal artistic exploration and expression. She attended Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, where she was invited to exhibit in the Annual Juried Student Awards Show for three consecutive years, and was also awarded a Talent Grant-Tuition Waiver in the Student Talent Grant Awards Show competition in 2002. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Art Education in 2003. However, several years after graduation, she became discouraged and disillusioned with the preferences of the mainstream fine art world and began an artistic drought that would last many years.
Upon relocation to Southwest Colorado in 2014, Leaf once again became inspired by the amazing natural world surrounding her, as well as finding her true community and home there; she then started creating work that was somewhere in-between hyper-realistic and non-figurative. Donating a hand-painted three-dimensional piece to a 2016 fundraiser by the Four Corners Alliance for Diversity re-started Leaf’s painting career. She then continued to exhibit her work locally; some of these shows include the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango Friends and Members Show and Human/Nature: Annual Members' Environmental Exhibit at the Durango Arts Center in 2017, and Durango Pride Festival's Pride Art Shows from 2017-2019. Still not satisfied, Leaf began to explore more of what made her happy and gave her fulfillment, rather than what others may view as valuable or beautiful. This shift opened the floodgates of artistic creation and gave Leaf the freedom to create as she needed to and she has not looked back since then. Subsequently, she discovered a great fascination with patterns, the contrast between light and darkness, and the vast breadth and depth of emotions. In 2024, her new work has been shown at Delicate: A Group Show at Studio & Gallery in Durango, Earth Day "Planet vs. Plastic" Art Exhibition at Durango Sustainable Goods, "ON THE DAILY: Coffee & Tea” Juried Exhibition at Studio & Gallery and the Durango Open Studio Tour.
Over the years, Leaf has firmly established herself as a cutting-edge abstract, eco-centered artist in the Durango area. Her work has become what it has always needed to be - emotion-based, and springing from dreams, visions and memories. She now sees painting as a sort of visual journaling and an adventure, and it gives her great joy to share this knowledge and passion with others. In addition, it is her strongest hope that all may find peace, joy and comfort in and through her work.