Check Out Megen Leigh’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Megen Leigh.

Hi Megen, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Megen Leigh, I’m an artist living in Westerville, OH who has grown up in the science fiction and fantasy community. As an artist working primarily in watercolor and fluid inks, I create whimsical, imaginative landscapes and playful abstracts that often reflect that upbringing. I’m a self taught artist who after working in retail for 20+ years finally decided to take a leap, bet on myself and go all in on my art career. Over the last several years I’ve been on a journey of self discovery through reconnecting with art. I have experimented with a variety of styles and mediums trying to find that one thing that defines me as an artist. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m never going to stop evolving and experimenting. The journey is what keeps me going, but watercolor feels like home to me now.

I had my first gallery exhibition “Deconstructing Nature” at the German Village Meeting Haus in May 2023, was accepted into the Columbus Arts Festival as an Emerging Festival Artist in 2024 and was offered a studio space at High Road Gallery where I’m now both a resident artist and a member of the non-profit’s executive board. I’ve participated in a number of juried festivals large and small throughout Ohio since June of last year. I was also the Artist Guest of Honor at Windycon 50 in Chicago in Nov 2024, and was asked to be the Creative GoH at Confusion in Ann Arbor area in early 2026 both are small fan run science fiction conventions. I have a current solo exhibition “Tell Me A Story” on display at the Granville Center for the Arts that’s up through Oct 26 2025.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I hit a pretty big mental health roadblock right before covid hit in 2020 after breaking my arm. That carrying into lockdown, then carrying into working in a busy retail space as an essential worker through almost all of 2020-21 along with some growing health concerns for both myself and my family all kind of combined and turned into me being a big mess of anxiety and depression. I needed an outlet, badly, and throwing myself into creation helped pull me out of it. I slowly started gaining a little bit of recognition for my work, and more confident showing it to people and applying for things that could move my art career forward. Imposter syndrome, like probably many artists out there, has been haunting me for most of my life, but now that I’m in charge of my own destiny, and making a living as an artist, Im genuinely happier than Ive ever been. I feel like Im doing what I should have always been doing.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m known for creating both whimsical illustrative imaginary worlds and playful stream of consciousness abstract work. Im primarily a watercolor artist but some of my abstract work also uses fluid inks applied in various ways. I use bright, often unexpected colors, and often hide little details and story elements that make you get up close to find them. I consider myself something of a visual storyteller, but one that ultimately wants the viewer to determine the narrative. Often when people look at my work they are surprised to learn that it’s watercolor. one of the advantages of being largely self taught, is I learned traditional rules and techniques after I learned from experimenting, so I didn’t have anyone saying “not that way” or “that’s not how you use that”. As a consequence, my work doesn’t look like what most people are used to when they hear watercolor.

What does success mean to you?
For me? Success means continuing to be able to make a living with my art as my primary income, continuing to create for myself more than anything else, and hopefully picking up some public recognition along the way. But really I just want to be able to keep focusing on my work. As long as I can make enough to be able to support my family and my art supply habit, I’m happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://megenleigh.com
• Instagram: @leighmarts
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megenleighfineart/
• Other: TikTok/BlueSky @leighmarts