My Work
About Me
Yo, I’m Leo Asch and I’m a 20 Year old multimedia artist. I’ve been drawing all my life, but within the past five years I learned to paint, produce music, write songs, collage, design, build experimental instruments, I’m an amateur welder and electronic enthusiast, I learned pottery, I custom paint clothes and shoes, man really anything art related I can do because it’s all the same principles with a different brush. I was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida and always wanted to leave… but when I saw what Dion Dia and so many others were doing here, I realized I wanted to stay and be a part of building something special for Gainesville. I’ve been through a lot of shit that ends up in my art, my brother passed away when I was born, he was two, I’ve struggled with my identity, mental health, adhd, ocd, depression, anxiety, etc. for too long to recount, I’ve had issues with my absent father, the list goes on, sob sob yada yada. But with art I’ve been able to express feelings and thoughts that I never could find words for and it has become my greatest therapy. I do this for me and only hope you can get something from it too. Love.
About Automatism Surrealism
You know when you’re playing a sport, making music or art, when you’re doing that activity that brings you joy or peace? And there comes a point when you stop consciously thinking and start actively being; reacting? When you’re “in the zone?” That is Automatism surrealism.
I define Automatism Surrealism as the act of quieting your conscious mind, connecting with an outside energy or your subconscious mind/your gut, and letting it control whatever you’re doing. Officially, “Automatism was a group of techniques used by the Surrealists to facilitate the direct and uncontrolled outpouring of unconscious thought.” And according to André Breton, “Psychic automatism in its pure state by which one proposes to express—verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner, the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.”
I stumbled upon this art form while practicing something called automatic writing during covid. Automatic writing is a practice (feel free to scoff and call me crazy) of communicating with other energies by quieting your conscious mind, connecting with them, asking a question, and unconsciously writing the first thing you hear in your head. So I thought, “Shiiiiiet if I can talk to my dead family with this, can I have them draw with/through me?” And I tried it, fell in love with the process, the outcomes, and later found out what I was doing already had a name: Automatism Surrealism.
I start each piece with as little intent as possible. I seek to quiet my conscious mind and rid the process of thoughts and ego and my human brain. That shit is loud and distracting.
I choose the medium, the type of canvas, and the first brush strokes based solely off my gut feeling. I just start “painting” (this goes for every other kind of art I make too, but “painting” is easier), and if the strokes I make f e e l good- feel fluid, effortless, smooth, right, I keep going; but as soon as I feel any resistance, I stop. When I’m in tune, or “in the zone,” my eyes feel pressure, my energy feels focused, and my mind is inactive. When I feel this, I know I’ll like the piece.
Resistance to me is when my energy feels unfocused, scattered, like static on a tv. My hand feels stiff, strokes are accidentally jagged and I feel uncomfortable. Sometimes I’ll hear a comment from my brain about what I’m doing, or I start feeling like I want another cigarette- man, it takes many forms that you just know when you are faced with it. And everyyyyyy single time I want “this to look like that…'' or I try “to shade this like that…'' I don’t like the outcome. When I want or try I feel resistance. When I just put my brush down and listen to my gut, I make shit that I ain’t even know I could.
Since then, I’ve gotten so much more comfortable with this style and love what I’ve made, but most importantly I’ve learned how to trust my gut, how to listen to it. Then I started applying the same principles to everything: If it’s fluid, I do it. If I’m met with resistance, I don’t. I highly recommend doing your own research and trying it out sometime, you’ll be surprised how much you enjoy it.
Thank you!