Christopher Leitch is a multifaceted artist, a Buddhist adept at balancing the insistence of self with the workings of chance and the unexpected. Following early acclaim as a textile innovator, Leitch turned his focus to word works.
Featuring scrawled words and phrases in formats ranging from single drawings to multi-piece ensembles to room-scaled installations, the word pieces share a crudeness and immediacy arising from Leitch’s use of various self-distancing techniques, including writing upside-down and backwards or with closed eyes.
Words are also a key element in Leitch’s long-running series of “dream drawings,” pairing intimate narratives with fanciful images of the bizarre encounters and occurrences that populate his nocturnal imaginings.
“I’ve been making dream drawings and diaries since age 17,” Leitch said in a recent interview at his Merriam studio, where black boxes hold stacks of the drawings he has created since 2010. That’s when he devised the format he is using now, of typed descriptions around an area of white space.
“I make notes when I wake up; then I type a detailed description,” Leitch said. Later he adds watercolor images in the allotted white space, using spinners and dice to determine which paragraph he will illustrate.
Chance has always played an important role in Leitch’s work. So has discipline. He describes his routine of daily writing as “a regular part of Buddhist practice of developing qualities of mind and being observant.”
Leitch’s accounts of his dreams are vivid and detailed. Friends and family members, including his partner Stuart Hinds and his late parents, make repeated appearances. So do certain settings. “Lots of things happen inside cars, restaurants and gardens,” Leitch said.
The images range from surreal, such as his portrayal of a dwarf in a shopping cart, to sweet. A charming vignette shows a hawk asleep in a shoe box; cats weave through many of these scenes.
Why the fascination with dreams? One obvious reason is their freedom from conscious control. They are also exceedingly private. “I had attended seven schools by 8th grade,” Leitch said. “Those rapid-fire life changes made me more of an introvert, which gave me a way of being in charge in a sea of change.”
