Artist-to-Artist Conversation
Leon Finley + Daniel Coka (3 of 4)
Leon: This idea of coming into art school as an 18-year-old and having my first encounters with the theory of white male institutional frameworks, I think what happened for me—it’s such an interesting thing, but coming to art school, it was before I transitioned. I was this young, queer, female-presenting person, and I really, really wanted to prove myself to that system. I wanted to be like, ‘I can play this game; I can have these conversations; I can be a part of this thing.’ And I really gave myself over to it. I loved all of the theory and I read a lot and I did that whole thing. Then I think I got really, really far away from the healing or psychological healing—
Daniel: Psychomagical
Leon: Oh! I love that. That realization that, ‘I am making this to be in myself, to connect with myself, to connect with other realms, to connect with other people. This is a real thing that I am doing in reality. It’s actually doing something.’ I think that in my work has really only been done in a conscious and confident way for the past three or four years.
Where I’ve really been in a place like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m doing,’ and I don’t feel like I have to defend myself or make it fit into an art theory framework.
