Dawn Leigh
San Francisco, CA
Artist and storyteller crafting fine art collages from recycled materials, inspired by marine life, ecology, and collective memory.
Message
Kiss
Kiss is a study of intimacy—the moment when distance disappears, when breath meets breath, and two people exchange something wordless yet profound.
This series seeks to capture the internal world of a kiss:
the heartbeat felt through the skin,
the softness of surrender,
the bravery it takes to lean in,
and the way a single moment can echo long after it fades.
the heartbeat felt through the skin,
the softness of surrender,
the bravery it takes to lean in,
and the way a single moment can echo long after it fades.
Shaped by the way I see the world—slowly, intentionally, through the lens of someone who has learned to observe deeply—these works focus on the emotional architecture of connection. Every angle, shadow, and contour becomes part of a quietly powerful story.
Kiss is both personal and universal.
It reflects the tenderness we crave, the vulnerability we offer, and the transformative spark that happens when two people meet in perfect stillness, even for a breath.
It reflects the tenderness we crave, the vulnerability we offer, and the transformative spark that happens when two people meet in perfect stillness, even for a breath.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is a series about the routes we take, the places we pause, and the moments that stay with us long after the journey ends.
Created using watercolor on canvas, lino printing, ink wash, and coffee, each medium brings its own rhythm and personality. Watercolor reflects the fluid uncertainty of travel. Lino prints echo structure and repetition. Ink wash captures mood and atmosphere. Coffee adds warmth, nostalgia, and the soft imperfections of lived experience.
As an artist who moves through life at a thoughtful, steady pace, I’ve always been fascinated by how travel changes us—how the world comes into focus from a plane window, how a train carries entire stories in a single car, and how a daily commute can reveal unexpected beauty.
This collection honors those small yet meaningful moments of motion: the hum of engines, shifting horizons, and the way travel shapes who we become.
Sounds of San Francisco
San Francisco has a soundtrack all its own—woven from the musicians who bring life to its corners, transit stations, and open plazas. For more than a decade, I’ve paused to listen, photograph, and witness these performers, capturing the rhythms that define the city’s spirit.
My creative style has always been grounded in observation and depth. As a slow learner due to undiagnosed dyslexia in my early years, I developed a natural sensitivity to the details others overlook: the emotion behind a chord, the concentration in a musician’s posture, the way sound changes the way a space feels. Those small moments became the foundation of Sounds of San Francisco.
This series is a tribute to the culture carriers who shape the city not through noise, but through their presence. Through collaged texture and layered paper, I translate their music into visual form—rhythms, echoes, and vibrations captured in color and movement. Each piece aims to preserve a fleeting performance, honoring the artists who give San Francisco its heartbeat.
Tide Keepers
Tide Keepers is the meeting place of my story and the ocean’s story.
Growing up on the North Coastal shores of San Diego in the 70s and 80s, I learned early—through public conservation programs like I Love a Clean San Diego—that the ocean is something we are entrusted with. The Pacific became my first teacher, shaping my imagination, my values, and eventually my art.
Long before I had a name for it, I navigated school as an undiagnosed dyslexic. I learned slowly, absorbed deeply, and built every skill like a turtle crossing long stretches of sand: with patience, persistence, and an unshakeable inner rhythm.
Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare became a quiet truth in my life. While the world raced ahead, I learned to trust the turtle’s pace—steady, grounded, and committed to the long journey.
Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare became a quiet truth in my life. While the world raced ahead, I learned to trust the turtle’s pace—steady, grounded, and committed to the long journey.
Tide Keepers grew from that same philosophy.
Through layered collage made from reclaimed paper, I tell the stories of sea turtles and other marine species whose survival depends not on speed, but on endurance and adaptation. Each work is both a personal reflection and an environmental call—an invitation to slow down, look closely, and remember that resilience is built one steady step at a time.
Through layered collage made from reclaimed paper, I tell the stories of sea turtles and other marine species whose survival depends not on speed, but on endurance and adaptation. Each work is both a personal reflection and an environmental call—an invitation to slow down, look closely, and remember that resilience is built one steady step at a time.
Recognized internationally, the series has been featured in the UNESCO-endorsed Ocean III Virtual Art Residency and profiled in Novum Artis Issue 011 magazine, coming November 2025, affirming its role as both artistic expression and environmental advocacy.
Wine, Women, and Song
Wine, Women, and Song is painted entirely with red wine—a medium chosen for its sensuality, symbolism, and its willingness to behave like a living thing.
Wine bleeds, blooms, stains, fades, deepens, and surprises. It behaves the way stories move through a woman’s life—slowly at first, then all at once, leaving traces that never quite disappear.
Wine bleeds, blooms, stains, fades, deepens, and surprises. It behaves the way stories move through a woman’s life—slowly at first, then all at once, leaving traces that never quite disappear.
Drawing from my own rhythm as a slow learner with late-diagnosed dyslexia, I’ve always gravitated toward materials that evolve in their own time. Working with red wine requires patience and a keen sense of intuition. Each drop has a mind of its own. It teaches surrender, responsiveness, and trust—qualities at the core of feminine resilience.
In these portraits, red wine becomes more than a medium; it becomes a metaphor.
It whispers of celebration and heartbreak, of laughter spilled onto tablecloths, of the songs women carry quietly and the ones they belt at full volume.
Its warm undertones hold memory.
Its unpredictability mirrors emotion.
Its stains become the stories that shape us.
It whispers of celebration and heartbreak, of laughter spilled onto tablecloths, of the songs women carry quietly and the ones they belt at full volume.
Its warm undertones hold memory.
Its unpredictability mirrors emotion.
Its stains become the stories that shape us.
Wine, Women, and Song is a toast to the bold, tender, lyrical lives of women—and to the beauty found in a medium that, like them, possesses both softness and fire.
