The Versatility of Ariel Leira

Ariel Leira is a multidisciplinary visual artist and writer who grew up amongst the trees of Montecito, documenting her TRAVELS through glowing, abstract photography and heartfelt poetry. She was a lifer at Crane Country Day School – where we met in fifth grade – and graduated from Santa Barbara High School. 

Leira’s artistic proclivities began early in life at home. Her entire family is composed of artists: her mother a ceramicist and painter, her sister a musician, and her father a production designer for movies. The artistry gene even runs back to her grandmother. “When I look at the drawings I make versus my mother and grandmother’s paintings, it’s apparent how influential they are on my work.” 

But Leira can point to a film pivotal to her artistic development. “When I was three years old, my dad showed me the 1950’s movie The Blob. It scared the shit out of me, but it permanently altered my brain chemistry. It made me love movies, camp, and over-the-top storytelling.” 

The curious Leira was not beholden to one artistic discipline. Her adolescence was marked by taking after school acting and, by her account, “highly frustrating” guitar lessons. Inspired by the Young Adult fiction craze of the late aughts, Leira took to writing poetry and fiction everyday, taking inspiration from authors such as Neil Gaiman and Patti Smith. 

Leira left Santa Barbara for her junior year of high school to pursue acting at Idyllwild Arts Academy. Naturally, Leira pursued an acting degree at The New School, trading Californian forests for the jungle of New York City. She quickly realized she “didn’t love crawling on the floor, acting like an animal” and switched to film studies, hopping at the opportunity to bolster her writing chops. 

From composing songs, writing poetry daily, and completing a feature-length script for her thesis, Leira’s apparent knack for writing was undeniable. It became the focal point of her practice. “I’m the most proud of my thesis script. Writing feels like giving birth; it’s painful, but you’re proud of it.” 

When she wasn’t in classes, Leira spent nights in the underground techno and punk scene. Her visual arts skills translated to “VJing:” creating digital visuals live on her laptop to cast behind the set of a traditional DJ. She’d snap photos with her phone or a film camera, heavily editing her subjects. 

Here, Leira crafted her visual style: blurred, high-contrast portraits of longing characters in vibrant hues, reminiscent of shoegaze album covers from the 90s and early aughts. They evoke a raw, dark angst only found at the front lines of alternative culture. 

Leira maintains her work is influenced by her immediate surroundings. Hence, after returning from New York City to Santa Barbara, Leira’s first instinct was to capture her environment through song, poetry and photography. 

On a quick visit to Slab City, an unincorporated town 45 miles from the border of Mexico in Sonoran Desert, Leira penned the following poem: 

The Last Free Place in America 

Neither of us had pants on in Niland
When we went through the checkpoint 
Your tits were out at
Salvation Mountain
The old man cursed us under high pink
GOD IS LOVE
We admired his paint job thinking,
The sky is blue,
Slab City sure has a lot of rules
Didn’t you say this place was lawless?
I hope my baseball cap is still out there 
Floating somewhere 
On top of the Salton Sea
Guarded by the cold cut 
Dog killer highway patrol
Who tell little girls,
Thank God for taking us
Where the wild things come to die

Leira and longtime friend and collaborator Lucy Branch began writing an album in 2022, exploring musical storytelling and concept songs, including one from the perspective of a doll. Maxim Silvers is producing the album, and Stephen Dabby has joined the effort on the bass. 

While the album is in production, Leira’s future plans involve creating a designated experimental space for the young DIY community of Santa Barbara. “There’s no freaks in this town anymore! We need a space to get a little freaky with it.” She’d also like to use her writing chops to write and direct a play.

If you’d like to help Ariel Leira make Santa Barbara a freakier place, you can email her at arielaeakin@gmail.com. To stay updated on her future album, her Instagram is @faceflesh.