Vessels Video
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.
Cutting Vessel No. 3
Vessels Experience
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
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
Thomas
Thomas is a straightforward man. He served in the air force back in the seventies, and since then has worked many jobs, including his current work of unloading freight from trucks. After many years living out on the streets, he now has a place to live at the local VA-funded shelter. He is dealing with a difficult disease – thyroid cancer – yet his demeanor is not morose or filled with self-pity; I found him to be hospitable, friendly and real. He is someone you just sense is ready for any adventure that comes his way. And, you should hear him recite Psalm 100 – he says it so fluidly, it seems like he wrote it himself: “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness… It is he who made us… and we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving…For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
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Thomas by Jason Leith
found wood, charcoal, etching, composite gold leaf
available at $1850
Jason@sacredstreets.org
Luis
Luis is a man at peace, a quiet spirit. Instead of anxiously filling in empty spaces with words, he invites the gaps in conversation. He sits back and quietly takes it all in, more of an observer than a participant in the near-bedlam all around him. He never seems to lose his dignified bearing. Luis is known as “Scrappy” because he’s the street’s mechanic, digging into his oversized bag of tools to tweak, repair, or repurpose the scraps people bring him – pieces of a bike, a broken wheelchair, a shopping cart. Luis is self-perceptive. He perceives the image of himself that could be, and should be, but you can tell that his own ideals are so elusive that it is challenging for him to even think about trying to be that person he knows is deep down inside him somewhere.
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Luis by Jason Leith
found objects, charcoal, etching, composite gold leaf
available for purchase
Steve
Steve lives on the outskirts. Instead of mingling with the homeless on Skid Row, he has found a secluded oasis of nature at the edge of a vacant lot at the edge of LA County. Steve has been dealt a difficult hand in life, and despite being adopted, losing his mother at a young age, having a severe physical disability in his leg, and suffering from delusional schizophrenia, he has tried to stay on track the best he can. Over the past couple of years, as I have done things like getting Steve a new knee brace to help him walk again, or transporting his clothes to the Laundromat after weeks of living in the dirt, his response is “I feel human again.” This old rotting chair came from Steve’s place, one of the many discarded items that piled up against the cinderblock wall under the canopy of trees where he spends his time.
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Steve by Jason Leith
found chair, wire, charcoal
available for purchase
Dawn-Robin
James
James is a natural leader. He is originally from Louisiana and has been living without a home for thirty years. His body language, even as he sits in his wheelchair, definitely shows the dignity of his southern roots. Despite his amputated leg, it appears that he is the boss around Crocker Street. While we were together, people were constantly coming to him with questions and checking in for his advice. As I was drawing him, he said, “You know, you can tell it all in the eyes.” He paused, “So whaddya see in my eyes?” I stopped, looked deeply into his dark eyes and replied, “I see wisdom. I see an age of stories and life experiences, and a determination for a goal ahead of you.” After drawing James’ portrait, we set up his tent together as it began to lightly rain. I haven’t seen James since that day—people say that he just had to get out of this place. But every time I pass, I look for him, trying to spot a bowler hat or a wheelchair.
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James by Jason Leith
found objects, charcoal
SOLD, Private Owner Houston, TX
