ARTIST STATEMENT

Perform!

featuring Marija Leilynn

Artist Statement

I aim to create images that tell an honest story beautifully—images you don’t just look at, but can step into and feel. I believe that imposing my own idea of beauty onto the moment by posing and perfecting takes away from an image, and when I pay attention to the story life is telling right in front of me, that’s where the magic happens. My approach to photography aims to capture history—a collection of memories—how it is felt in that present time. To listen for the meaning (what drives that story forward) and allow God to move me deeper by putting expectations aside. It really is a spiritual discipline for me, and my hope is that it can be for those who receive the images as well. Documentary photography can help us to honor the truth of life as beautiful—every joy and every challenge—and remind us that each moment of our lives is just a small part of a grander story being written with us all.

About the Artist

Marija Leilynn is a multi-disciplinary artist with expressions in oil landscape painting, documentary photography, and poetry. All the work she creates speaks with passion for authenticity, faith, and beauty. She began her own business as a portrait and wedding

photographer in 2018 and gradually taught herself how to paint with oils from landscape photographs of her travels, including painting in her professional work beginning in 2020. In 2023, Leilynn graduated from Northwestern St. Paul with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Creative Writing. During her time there, she was a head editor on the university's creative writing literary journal, won first place in poetry in the Fine Art Writing Competition for two consecutive years, and self-published a poetry collection titled Sometimes, Patience. She is now located in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, working on her visual art while pursuing a full-time career in cultivating the arts in adults.