Lifesize Floating Forms by Leah Yerpe

Do you dream about flying? Brooklyn artist Leah Yerpe draws what she dreams- highly detailed, lifesize floating forms that seem to fly off the paper. Some of her artworks are over ten feet high. In contrast to their impressive scale, Yerpe’s choice of materials are simple; black charcoal for her larger works, and a single mechanical pencil for smaller studies. “I enjoy using the human figure in my work because we cannot help but project on and relate to it,” she shares at her website. Yerpe’s passion for dance is evident in the ornate shapes she creates with twisting arms and legs, and intertwined torsos placed against a white background. In dance, abstract emotional expressions have different movement characteristics. Yerpe is also conveying a range of emotions through her compositions. Recent works also play with fabric patterns which can affect the mood. Some introduce animal dancing partners, specifically horses, who exhibit both elegance and power. They provide a mythological theme for Yerpe, who considers her forms to be symbols of freedom and religious allegory. At their core, what they represent is a dreamy human experience and achieving wholeness through mind and physical connection.