Leigh Herndon Rozome

Leigh’s award winning mysterious rozome paintings tell a story, evoke an emotion, or give an impression and lend themselves to metaphor, and sometimes ambiguity. By being atmospheric and not being too literal, the viewer is left to complete the story as desired or needed, based on personal experiences. Leigh does not try to be too representational, and although she likes imagery, it is just a starting place. One reviewer described her work as poetic.

Leigh Herndon works daily in her Naples studio dyeing silk using rozome (Japanese kimono design techniques). Silk accepts dyes more brilliantly than any other fiber fueling Leigh’s experimentation with color and nature-inspired paintings. Rozome, or Japanese wax-resist dye painting, is infinitely more intriguing, much more flexible and painterly, and presents a new fluidity to the dye process which is captivating to Leigh and changed her creative process.

After learning traditional batik at the University of Montana, and obtaining a Master’s Degree in Fibers at Southern Illinois University, Leigh studied rozome with Kiranada (Betsy) Sterling Benjamin who learned from the Japanese kimono masters, while spending sixteen years in Japan. Mixing her own dye colors from the primaries results in custom colors that can’t easily be found elsewhere. Overlaying one transparent dye color over another creates an entirely new color, which she finds exciting. The versatility of hot wax used in creating the designs lends unique textures to the creations.

For Leigh the design process is a blend of planning, spontaneity, and experimentation with a great interest in the inter-relationship of edges of shapes within the designs. Frequently the process begins with a drawing on the silk, and progresses and changes with ideas that occur while working. This unforgiving medium doesn’t allow for covering up one’s mistakes, so some of the works are scrapped. Creating art is an exercise in problem solving and it carries into daily life with novel approaches to solving problems. She believes that art experiences are vital to children and adults, not only for personal expression, but for the lesson that there are many creative ways to solve a problem.
Leigh’s award winning works and wearable art have been exhibited in numerous juried national and international shows and solo shows in more than 12 states as well as the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. and her work is in several private collections.