Leann has been involved in creating art for over 10 years: illustrating (using scratchboard), creating hand-pulled block prints and monoprints, and hand-glazing original tiles. Her creative path began with linoleum and wood block printing, where she cut lines into negative space to create a positive image. Her process was a spontaneous organization of line, shape and color. The weight, curve and rhythm of lines define the space the artwork embodies. Each step in printing became an ongoing, evolving conversation between the tools, the block, and herself.

In the course of these conversations, consistent images began to surface. Strong emotion was often transformed into abstract yet tranquil forms (such as Reflections) or into rhythmic figures that belied challenging moments in her life at the time like After Seven Years. Cultural symbolism emerged through sketches or creative experiments with ink and painted paper, one of which resulted in Four Offerings. The ink and paper experiments led her to monoprinting.

Working with a brush and exploring cultural designs led to glazing tiles. While monoprinting was an opportunity to be more expressive and sometimes abstract, tiles became another step on her artistic path. Tile design was a way to combine art and functionalism with cultural images and designs that resonated with her African American heritage. As a result, she has gone from using abstract figures in two dimensions to incorporating Adinkra symbols and West African textile motifs in three dimensions: creating useable, culturally affirming and individually-designed tiles that honor her African forebears and her rural history. Having grown up on a dairy farm in Ohio, Leann has a history of incorporating her ideas with what’s available around her to create her work. Tiles are another step in combining aesthetics with function.

Leann has done editorial illustrations for The New York Times, as well as graphic design and illustration for various Twin Cities companies. She has artwork in collections such as the Minnesota History Center and the Frank Stone Gallery. In February 2011 she was a spotlight artist for the Handmade Tile Association. In March one of her monoprints was shown in “Art of the Community II” at Intermedia Arts with the South Minneapolis Arts Business Association (SMARTS). Her tiles were part of an installation at Patrick’s Cabaret (“Studies N Black”). Leann will be participating in the upcoming Art-A-Whirl, as well as the Annual Minnesota Tile Festival in September. She is a member of the Handmade Tile Association, Northside Arts Collective (NAC), and Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA). .