“It might not work out right away, but it won’t work out at all if you just give up.”

– Shelby LeBlanc

As we move into the warmer weather, so do we move into warm, inviting, and colorful pieces with our March Tiny Gallery show. Shelby LeBlanc, a Columbia native who recently made Charleston her home, brings us Little Pieces, a collection of inviting scenes stitched together with puzzle pieces.

LeBlanc, 29, recalls being artistic since a young girl with a natural talent for drawing. Her parents, noticing this, signed her up for classes with a local artist, Ms. Mossley, and she continued to take classes throughout high school with another artist, Angel Allen. After going to college, LeBlanc stepped away from art but found her way back when she needed it most. “I started back after a terrible time with depression,” she recollects, “Art probably saved my life.”

When it comes to what kind of art LeBlanc crafts, she is drawn to people, places, and nature and, like a photograph, her paintings develop into a concrete image over the time from conception to finality. “I’m not one for abstract work,” she asserts, “I like to paint what I see, but I want to enhance the colors, highlights, and shadows. I want the viewer to know what they're looking at.”

LeBlanc appreciates variety not just in subject matter but style. She experiments with various paints, pens, and watercolors and continuously expands her color palette. “I love pushing myself to try new subject matter, styles, mediums,” she remarks, “But I like to hide elements in my work with the book pages I use and love the textures it creates.”

In Little Pieces, LeBlanc’s creativity is clearly at play. Vivid colors of cerulean, rose, and emerald leap out from the scalloped pieces, making the scenes appear more animate than still. LeBlanc offers a perspective of her environment while still allowing others to feel at home within its boundaries, boundaries you can trace with your own fingers.

LeBlanc shares that she often uses recycled books in her work, but she wanted to try something new as she explored the Charleston landscape she has fallen in love with. “They are all actual puzzles that I assembled during quarantine” she reveals, “The sizes and the outer edges were a mixture of my own vision and manipulating the puzzles to fit the criteria for the show.”

While the Charleston landscapes and puzzle pieces may be newer to her portfolio, Columbia patrons will be familiar with her bold colors and line work. LeBlanc has shown work at Sakitumi, Vista Lights, Richland Library, 701 Whaley, Spencer's Art Gallery, and Art Mecca and even designed the origami room in Immersion SC. In 2019, she was the runner-up for Free Times’ Best Visual Artist.

When it comes to her favorite memories, while LeBlanc says there are too many to put into words, the highlights always seem to cycle around family. “I love when my family gets to come to my shows, especially my 96-year-old grandmother,” she reflects, “I met my boyfriend, Sean, while I was working on a mural, and I spend most days at my house working alongside my dogs.”

Though a lover of creation, LeBlanc’s motivation, like many artists’, took a blow with the events of 2020. “I had moments of doubt unlike ever before because no one knew what tomorrow was going to look like,” she recalls, “But I received several messages of encouragement for my work and openness about my mental health, and knowing that I had supporters, friends, and family in my corner helped me overcome those feelings and keep working.”

If you want to see LeBlanc’s stories, told through the lens of a love for her city, they are available for view and purchase 24/7 on the Jasper website until March 31st: https://the-jasper-project.square.site/tiny-gallery

After the show, you can keep an eye out for LeBlanc’ work at Affordable Art of Charleston’s showcase “Go Bold” on March 25th in Mt Pleasant and Avondale’s Highfalutin in Charleston this August and September. You can also see her work anytime at Art Mecca of Charleston, on Dress the Room, and via her Instagram (@shelby.leblanc) and Facebook (@shelbyleblancart).

“Art has helped me through many crises before and this year was no different,” LeBlanc effuses, “I would tell any artist to keep at it. It might not work out right away, but it won’t work out at all if you just give up.”

— Christina Xan