Hugo Award-winning artist brings science fiction, mythology and fantasy to life

Significantly to her mother’s dismay, a younger Elizabeth Leggett seen their whitewashed walls as a canvas.

“I would attract on the partitions and place factors in front of it,” she reported. “When we moved, my mom mentioned, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”

Leggett’s 1st spending gig was portray other students’ tennis sneakers in superior school.

Currently the Albuquerque artist reveals her get the job done at Santa Fe’s Hold Contemporary.

Leggett’s working day task retains her active illustrating e book addresses for Prince of Cats Literary Productions, producing electronic illustrations or photos for science fiction and fantasy.

The artist turns to high-quality art for more individual expressions.

In 2012 Leggett illustrated a full 78-card tarot pack in a single 12 months. More modern series have bundled performs based mostly on the tales of fantasy/sci-fi author Ray Bradbury.

Other works seize the mystery of her particular muses. She usually incorporates fantasy and mythology into her get the job done.

Leggett grew up in North Carolina, in which she majored in psychology and English literature at East Carolina University in Greenville. She is fully self-taught.

“My mom was a one guardian,” she spelled out. “We went to all the museums. She preferred to show off my perform, but she did not want me to do it as a occupation.”

Inspite of all those doubts, Leggett labored as a center college and significant school teacher, then became a freelance artist for 25 many years, illustrating book handles and magazines.

She moved to Albuquerque, the home of her husband, 6 a long time in the past.

“I’ve always performed parts for myself,” she reported. “There has to be a component of your have voice in points.”

In 2015, she gained the prestigious Hugo Award for Greatest Fan Artist. “Game of Thrones” mastermind George R.R. Martin gave her her initially solo clearly show at Santa Fe’s Jean Cocteau Cinema. It was there that she was recruited by Maintain.

Her portrait “Magpie Charmer” reveals a woman, her coat embellished with several trinkets, with a magpie perched on her shoulder.

A hen lover, Leggett understood she had never depicted a magpie.

“Amid the visible chaos, (the figure) is incredibly tranquil,” she explained. “I appreciate fabrics. All the coloration get the job done are the trinkets on her sleeves is lace.”

“I draw on the personal computer like I paint,” she ongoing. “And I imagine like a painter.”

Leggett employs designs for most of the fingers, heads and entire body sections.

The entwined palms in “Cassandra’s Dream” are truly her individual. The truth of the matter clings to her like butterflies.

“Cassandra was the sister of Hector of the Trojan War in Greek mythology,” she mentioned.

“She was blessed by Apollo to do prophesies.”

When Cassandra rejected Apollo’s advancements, he cursed her to in no way be believed.

“I am fascinated by the hand positions of American Indication Language,” Leggett included. “She desires to talk, but she is aware she should not and the other hand is stopping her.”

Both of those “Making the Most of the Offered Light” and “Carried A’weigh” are muse paintings.

“I have a tiny superstition that I will need to admit her each and every calendar year,” Leggett said. “For 2020, all people was so sad. But at the similar time, there were moments. Most people recognized at some position this would appear to a summary.”

The determine wears a crown of acorns for development. The “poor very little shell-shocked owl” signifies wisdom. The crow, whose flocks are acknowledged as “murders” symbolizes the plague of the coronavirus.

“Carried A’weigh” has a soaring tree with an acrobat getting virtually thrown by a horse.

“I like issues that fly. The tree is an olive tree. Olive trees are sacred in numerous religions.”

In September, Leggett will be the visitor of honor at the WhimsyCon costume and steampunk conference in Denver.

“I do a large amount of examining,” she mentioned. “I love music, I really like movies.”