Leon Box

When asked why he draws from illustrations, Leon replies, as he does to most questions of aesthetic theory, "Because I want to." [From Texas Monthly article in Bartlett Library vertical file: http://library.internationalfolkart.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=23680]

He was born in 1919 in rural Navarro County [Texas]. When his father died, six-year-old Leon and his four siblings were placed in a Coriscana orphanage by his overburdened and impoverished mother. A couple of years later the other children went back home, but Leon, who had been diagnosed as "tongue-tied and feebleminded," was sent to the Austin State School. In those days wards of the state were kept busy with farm and housekeeping chores, but Leon insisted on spending each day drawing...Leon still [in 1980] refers to art as his "job." [From Texas Monthly article in Bartlett Library vertical file: http://library.internationalfolkart.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=23680]