About Leyla
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How it all began in La Union
My parents met in La Unión, a small town in Colombia near the Rio Blanco river. Their meeting happened by chance, thanks to La Canción de la Vida Profunda, a poem my father was reciting as he passed the doorway where my mother stood. A couple of years later I was born in the city of Bogotá.
When I Was a Girl in Bogotá
One day, my mother gave me a small easel and a box of paints. My first painting was of a group of six, tall, green, cypress trees. My two brothers and sister were much younger than me, so I spent a lot of time alone either reading, painting or making rag dolls.
Why I moved to New York City
After college I worked as an art teacher in a large public school in Bogotá. Before long, a restlessness curiosity and love of art took me to New York City for a one year visit in 1985. There I fell in love with the Big Apple, and John, a wonderful man with whom I have shared my life for many years.
During those first years in New York I studied lithography and other printmaking techniques at the Art Students League. I wrote and illustrated children’s books (published by Farrar Straus and Giroux), and worked as a teacher and writer of Spanish Language and ESL educational materials.
What’s going on now in Vermont
John and I live in Arlington, a small town near the Battenkill river in the lovely state of Vermont. I’m blessed to have a studio with a big window that faces south, where and I can spend time playing with color and being creative. I use traditional watercolor as a medium to create light-drenched images, which are now available for licensing.
