Opening Up by Daniel Leighton

My art is focused on the importance of identifying, acknowledging and expressing emotions. We all feel emotions and they impact us greatly, but they often go unacknowledged. This is due to the speed and complexity of modern day life, as well as a cultural imperative to find short-term solutions rather than addressing the core issues that would lead to long-term positive change.

To create my work, I combine my four primary areas of study: art, technology, film and the human condition. Synthesizing the old and new, I depict raw emotions using imagery, color, video, sound, animation and interactivity with high tech mediums like iPad and Augmented Reality.

I’ve faced my mortality, intense emotions and trauma ever since I could remember mainly due to Crohn’s Disease, which I’ve suffered from since birth. These experiences have given me a unique perspective on life. While many people see technology as an obstacle to connecting to their emotions. I see it as a gateway. My paintings and my Augmented Reality app are tools to help us understand ourselves and each other more completely and to achieve our greatest possibilities as individuals and as a collective whole.