For Leah Goren, being creative was part of growing up. Born and raised in California, the illustrator and surface pattern designer remembers painting with her mother in the backyard, an experience which she says was formative for her. “My mom is an artist,” she shared with The Great Discontent. “She was a teacher my whole life and never exhibited her work beyond the occasional local show, but she’s been making things across mediums for as long as I can remember.”
Goren took note, and since graduating from Parsons School of Design in 2012 with a BFA in Illustration, she has worked with selected clients that include Anthropologie, Chronicle Books, Kate Spade, Penguin Random House, Revlon, and Vogue. She is also the author of BESTIES, and co-author of Ladies Drawing Night.
Over the years, Goren’s style has naturally evolved but she says she always enjoyed figure drawing and was interested in women. “I like fashion and people’s personal styles,” she adds. “When I draw patterns, that’s a big part of my work and drawing girls and the clothes they wear makes a lot of sense. I don’t know if it was ever conscious. I draw what I’m interested in.”
But her work isn’t necessarily a statement. “People often ask me about my choice to draw women with all different body types and if I’m making feminist art. It’s like, well, it’s not not feminist, but I’m not choosing to draw all different body types because I’m trying to make a feminist statement. I just have the knowledge inside of me that, yes, all of these body types exist. That’s a fact.”
Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below.
