Vessels | Artist Statement

What can I tear down? Could a breaking release what lies within the confines of this vessel?

My practice is centered around portraiture that explores the intersection of humility and holiness. It is a response to writings like St. John’s that remind us that “we are not the Light, but we are witnesses to the light.” The portraits embody and act of sacrifice through the grueling process of constructing the canvas frames, hinging the measured icon windows, and laying gold using an ancient water-gilding technique.

These pieces are also a record of performance in public spaces. After the final strokes, the portrait is slowly and painstakingly cut down the middle using a handsaw or knife, and opened. The shapes of the openings reference sacred icons and altarpieces. In the culmination of the performance I step back to reveal a portrait obscured by the gold gilded interior.

Onlookers initially wondered, “Why ruin it? Is this what we’re called to do? Cut ourselves open?” One woman, after a performance in Altea, Spain asked, “Why sacrifice if it’s painful?” Her answer was found in the newly exposed and gleaming gold surface.

After entering into marriage in year two of this project, I felt such an intertwining of identity with my spouse that I couldn’t help but bring her into the self-portraits. The humble sacrifice now involved two people in relationship. It became communal.

Video | Robert’s Life Change

Jason Leith’s creative process began with drawing live portraits on the sidewalk. See this process as Leith draws the portrait of Robert, a man who had lived life on Skid Row with a drug addiction for decades, and how it sparked life change.

John

John is a kid, like me. He loves to read, which is an anomaly on Skid Row that he gets ridiculed for. And he wants to be a chef. Or a butler. He has a dream of going to culinary school and learning to cook his favorite American cuisine. But culinary school feels very inaccessible to him right now. He doesn’t have enough hope that it could ever be possible, and he doesn’t know where the push could come from that would get him off the streets and into school. A week after doing his portrait, I heard John finally decided to make his way back home to his family, something his skid row buddies were trying to convince him of for nearly a year.

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John  by Jason Leith

found table, metal, charcoal, etching

available for purchase

Email Jason
meeting with John on Skid Row, Los Angeles
Face-to-Face Connection

Robert

Robert is an overcomer. Virtually seconds after meeting Robert, he told me that the number one thing that he wants to communicate to the world is the horror of crack cocaine. He lifted up his shirt to reveal scores of large, swollen, red lesions on his torso, a problem caused by drug usage, which he wanted me to depict in his portrait.  As I showed Robert how I was going to place my drawing so the holes in the paper become his scars, I told him that if he is trusting in the right source of power, he can turn his body, scars and all, into a powerful story of redemption. He fixed his gaze at me from under his weathered brow and his distinctive headphones, and reiterated that he wanted to get this message out to the world to avoid crack. A week later, Robert called me from a rehab center, and told me that because of his portrait, he had checked himself in and had been clean for 48 hours, for the first time in decades.
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Robert  by Jason Leith
found paper, charcoal, etching, gold pen
SOLD, Private Collection, Michigan
Jason@sacredstreets.org

Roberta

Roberta is a resilient warrior. Over the years, she has felt like the devil was out to destroy her, waging battles against her using her former life of prostitution to capture her. But she says she has the three spirits of God on her, and the wounds of Christ in her feet, and God’s call on her life is winning the battle that rages unseen in the spirit world around her. Prostitution no longer has a grip on her, but substances do. She and her husband live in a tent on the sidewalk, but she’s looking forward to having a place soon and getting off the streets. Roberta is a big personality; to describe her I would use words like buoyant, joyful, positive, spiritual, friendly, self-confident, overcomer.  She has careful rituals that make her feel beautiful, and she feels chosen and protected by God.

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Roberta  by Jason Leith

found table, metal, charcoal, etching

SOLD, Private Collection