Student Showcase: Leah Verrilli
April 20, 2023 • Written by Sophia Dedek
From doll-like figures to gruesome gore, Leah Verrili is a sophomore fashion student who uses haunting imagery and intricate detail to create dream-like paintings that reflect a side to femininity that is often hard to capture through art. Balancing light and dark both literally and thematically, Verrilli exposes multiple sides of her feminine identity and shows that darker themes are not reserved for the masculine.
Her artistic style is everything from a doll-collector’s dreams and nightmares. The characters in her works exist in an imagined feminine dream world, and can be seen interacting with fairies and unicorns while ripping their own guts out. Her figures are all very organic and delicate, with large eyes, small mouths, and flowing bodies. She contrasts bright whites, pinks, and purples with deep blues, blood reds, and dark black.
I find myself so immersed in her art because of how detailed each individual piece is. The thin linework and the sparkly white detailing makes me look closer and invites me into the invented world she portrays. I particularly like the work Wintertime Bloodflowers that encompasses the harmony between the fantasy themes and the gruesome imagery by showing a fairy-like figure surrounded by bright white robes and flowers that have blood-red centers with splattered detailing in the background. I don’t want say these two themes are juxtaposing each other because they are balanced so well. Instead of contrasting each other, she allows the darker aspects of this work to be just as delicate and feminine as the lighter themes.
Her work is provocative, because it twists and mangles femininity while also celebrating it. Living as a woman in the world can be both beautiful and gruesome, and her art both celebrates that and acknowledges that with a more somber tone.
I am very happy to have had the opportunity to talk with her about her process.
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What inspires your Art?
“I like going on Pinterest or looking at art books for people who make very whimsical— very fairy tale-esque drawings. Pictures of women and doll artists and fashion. Not just limited to drawings. I also like darker elements, like blood,” Verrili says, laughing. “I wanna put more gore into my work, but right now my thesis is to create things that are sparkly and feminine. When I was 10 or 11 I discovered this Japanese artist, Minori, and she transforms japanese shironuri makeup into this ethereal spirit. She makes her own clothes and looks like a fairy. She inspires me a lot.”
Can you pinpoint a moment in your life that initially drew you to feminine things and images?
“I think that’s just always what I’ve gravitated towards. My aesthetic has changed a lot over time. I used to draw things that were more cute, but now I draw things that are more beautiful. Sometimes my work has a personal meaning to it, or to reflect on emotions that I’m having. I think some of my best pieces have come from when I was in a dark place, or thinking very heavily about a certain topic.”
What specific mediums do you prefer to use? I notice a lot of your work is drawing and—what I assume—is watercolor?
“Yeah, I do a lot of watercolor. My favorite medium, I would say, is probably colored pencil and watercolor. I like to combine media; I can’t just stick to one. Usually two or three for each piece. I get carried away sometimes but I like the way it looks. My process is very mindless but mindful.”
Is there a specific piece that you can pick out that you particularly remember making?
“Well, I think that the piece that I remember making the most was probably a piece that I called—It’s titled, Wintertime Bloodflowers. This piece is significant to me—I don’t know why, but I remember that the time period I was making this was very significant. I remember making it as a crutch during winter break because I remember winter break was very tough for me. It was a really hard time for me, and making this painting really allowed me to immerse myself into this piece and it came out really beautiful.”
You say your art changed a lot as you grew, do you see that happening now even more?
“Oh, totally. I feel like I’m always doing something different but sticking to the same core aesthetic in the end.”
Explain the philosophy –if you have one– of your work. The meaning behind it.
“I feel this a lot but my art is kind of like an outlet for me to explore this enchantment, or fantasy world. Or, like, a way for me to kind of make something that is magical, or from another world. Usually my pieces are very small so it tempts the viewer to look closer and be immersed in it and go up to it. Giant paintings have immersive qualities to them, but my work is like this little fairy world that you’re beckoned into coming in and taking a look. I’ve had people tell me this, it’s very immersive and they have a very entrancing quality about them, I guess. My work is meant to make people feel entranced by the ethereal quality. I do want to start thinking of different ways of approaching that; maybe making something that is a bit more thought-provoking. Maybe by incorporating more elements of blood. There was this one piece I made—it’s very important to me—of this woman, and if you look closely at it she is holding her uterus in her hand and she has a cut on her lower stomach. And, even though it has this ethereal trancelike quality to it—this beauty—it’s also morbid.”
What do these themes of femininity and morbidity mean to you?
“I really love that duality. I feel like I’m a person of duality, I’m not just one thing. Not two sides, but you ARE both sides. Not just willing to do one thing but do multiple things. I also love horror movies—I loved Pearl, it was so good—and the music I listen to. I recently started listening to more metal and rock music and I really became infatuated with Chelsey Wolf’s music. So I think that the music I listen to has really shifted that message. I wasn’t really making work with darker themes until I started listening to chelsey. Everything for me is very feminine, there is never really any masculine world. I feel like as a lesbian I need to create this idyllic place of femininity and womanhood but in its own way. Sometimes there's messages of the patriarchy, but this world is completely free of men—also because I hate drawing men,” she adds laughing. “I do like stereotypically feminine things, but It’s my art and I make it my own.”
Is there anything within your time here at MassArt that has influenced your art at all?
“I feel like there was a shift in my art when I came to MassArt. My aesthetic became more cosmic, ethereal but more dark, especially with the colors. My friend Urchin: meeting them was really crazy to me because they have a very similar thesis to me. They also draw a lot of figures of people, and I really admire the way they draw.”
Anything else you want to say? Any plans for future projects?
“I recently got a few copies of the beautiful bizarre magazine. I discovered so many artists through that magazine. I love having a physical book to look through. I’m gonna make a piece with a girl and a dragon, maybe in a watercolor kind of way. Very magical and ethereal, and I want to try and incorporate blood. I love textures, I love blood.”
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