Woman Drawing Man, 2014, acrylic on tinplate, 20 x 21 x 27 inches. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Alice Attie

While Leaf has been steadily exhibiting her work throughout her lifetime, she is not well known by most people in the art world. John Yau writes in the Brooklyn Rail about Leaf's uniqueness and how she has been underrated as an artist. In a 2007 interview with Yau, Leaf explains that her first sculpture was made as a way to bring Vermeer up-to-date. Leaf never developed the art star status of some of her contemporaries such as Louise Bourgeois, Nancy Spero or Kiki Smith. Her work follows a range of trajectories that move back and forth from painting to sculpture to drawing and sometimes a merging of all three. Leaf is an example of artist who has always ardently followed her own direction. In interviews she talks about how the characters she invents in her work, give her guidance in terms of what to do with them; giving the impression that the direction her work takes is almost out of her control.

In the Hyperallergic interview series called Beer with a Painter, Leaf was asked if she considers herself a painter or sculptor and she replied, "I think of myself as an inventor". Often artists make art for the simple reason that they are curious to see what will happen if they put certain things together, whether it be images or materials. Curiousity is a major motive for making art with many artists and the resulting work comes about because an artist wanted to know "what will happen if ____?". You can get some insight into how Leaf's mind works by watching her artist talk at the Owens Art Gallery. This is definitely not your typical artist lecture. Leaf starts by asking the audience why they are there, and then shows many images of her work without saying a word, which is followed by her drawing diagrams on a large piece of paper in an attempt to explain some of her thought processes. While her delivery might not have great finesse, you come away from the talk with a strong realization that Leaf's practice is so deeply embedded in her mind, body and soul, that she can't separate from it. In a somewhat poetic, albeit slow-starting, video filmed at the Museum Tingley, Leaf walks around a newly installed exhibition saying a very affectionate "hello" to all her figures as if she hasn't seen them in years (Leaf doesn't appear until the 12 minute mark in the video so skip ahead if you don't want to sit through the music video-esque portion).

While there isn't a lot of published information on Leaf's work, you can find an overview of her career on a blog dedicated to figurative art: Rhino Horn Group. And in 2006, Canadian art writer, Robert Enright, wrote a catalogue (now out-of-print) of her work (an interview by Enright can be found here: Drawing the Dance of the Unfinished Story). Prior to that, the last comprehensive publication of her work was in 1991: June Leaf: A Survey of Painting, Sculpture and Works on Paper, 1948-1991 (also out-of-print).

Leaf reminds me of the main reason I make art: I make art to satisfy my curiosity about the world. I get to know the world, and my place in it through my art practice. All other things such as exhibiting, selling and becoming famous, are add-on bonuses that are not necessary to the production of the work. In the case of the committed artist, work gets made with or without these extraneous outcomes.
 
Wendy Welch

Executive Director
Vancouver Island School of Art

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