Lyba Leona Fine Artist

Lyba Leona is a San Francisco born, award winning artist, currently based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. A fine arts major, with a painting concentration, she has been gaining notoriety on the Gulf Coast art scene. In March of 2025, five of her works were selected amongst hundreds to be a part of the juried student exhibition at SELU. In June of 2025, Lyba Leona's autobiographical piece "Long, Tall Sally," placed 2nd in celebrated New Orleans artist Terrance Osbourne's juried competition "Fragments of Imagination." Several of her pieces have been featured at White Linen Night, and in September, a large portion of her collection was picked up by the French Quarter Boxcar Gallery on Royal Street. Most of this collection sold within 8 weeks of it's placement. Her illustrations have been internationally published in Kinetic medical journal, and the British podcast "Grimm Reading." Lyba Leona has also worked with various musicians on commissioned album and poster art. 

Lyba creates in acrylic, goauche, oil, pen and ink, charcoal, pastel, and graphite. While her works range in theme from esoteric to lighthearted, she weaves a whimsical and dreamlike thread through each of her pieces. Pulling influences from the West Coast psychedelic poster artist Victor Moscoso, as well as surrealists Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo, her art is also deeply inspired by the mysticism of poet William Blake and magician/philosopher Aleister Crowley. She has always had a vibrant imagination and has had incredibly vivid dreams since childhood. Naturally, they follow her into the waking world, and manifest in many wonderful ways. Lyba Leona has currently undertaken the daunting task of creating her own Tarot card deck. While honoring the classic imagery and theology of the original card game of Tarot, she injects countercultural psychedelic references, and influences from spiritual traditions all over the world. 

Artist Statement

"While I have been a creative since I was a small child, the catalytic death of my father at age 10 propelled me to a near obsessive level to cope with dreams and memories. Over the last decade, it has morphed into a safe haven where I can retreat into a world of my own, featuring fantastical characters who could not possibly exist in this carbon reality."