Meet Kevin Ledo: Muralist and contemporary painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Ledo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
The goal of my public murals is to have a social impact on the communities they are created in. The majority of my murals are meant to reflect the community in some way, often celebrating cultural or ethnic diversity, social justice or environmental awareness, with a positive and colourful image. The impact is hard to measure, perhaps directly unquantifiable, but the impact of mural art on communities and local business tends to be positive, bringing attention and pride to an area that many times has been in neglect. Art goers and unsuspecting pedestrians gather to take in mural art, forming a point of interest and landmark for the neighborhood.  

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a muralist and contemporary painter. I studied illustration and design many, many moons ago, but never resonated with commercial art. I began painting on canvas, working with galleries, and years later began street art and mural painting. The life of a career artist is a difficult path, for most of us. Years of struggle, self doubt, and crises are common, only to scrape by and hopefully have enough to pay the bills and continue creating. However, there are also great rewards, as it’s our job to explore, play and make sense of the world though our artistic expressions. From my experience it can be a double edged sword, because while it is a rewarding life to be creative, the rejection or lukewarm response to our expressions can make us question our integrity and self-worth. I have seen this time and time again, throughout the career I began in 2005. It has brought me to better understand my own psychology and what it is that I value most in life. I always held persistence, perseverance and patience as my virtues while I was coming up as an artist, with big dreams on the horizon. I took, and still take many chances, and aim to consistently grow in knowledge and creative expression. I occasionally entertain ideas of what else I could do with my life, but making art always comes back on top. 

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’m better and stronger at what I do in part because of the love, patience and support from my family and my life partner, and organizations that helped me develop my path like Festival Mural, aptArt and the Raw Project.

Website: Www.Kevinledo.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinledo/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinledo/

Image Credits
Daisy Sweeney photograph (piano woman) by Olivier Bousquet