Leza Holland

At the age of nine Leza Lidow participated in the New York Greenwich Village Art Fair. From then on she never wavered from the desire to be a great artist. At the end of the war she went to Paris to paint. It was exciting to be in Europe. It was difficult for everyone. Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Dali, and Magritte were all living and working in Paris at the time. Every evening one would find different artist in the cafés, one could join in with the discussions, and listen to every word they said. It was a very inspirational time to work, exchange ideas, hope, and aim for a successful future. In 1950, Leza returned to Los Angeles and had a one-woman show at the Royers Gallery. It was a very successful show. She had good responses and met her future husband. She continued working and found that the medium of painting on sculpture inspired her to do works of art with a meaning and a philosophy about women and the times. She has had successful shows of her works of art all over the world including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Italy, Switzerland, France, Scandinavia and in China. In the year 2005, at age 81, Leza developed arthritis in her hands and found it difficult and painful to paint long hours. She at once started to look for a new way to express her art. She found it very easily and from then on has been happy as a lark. Her new medium is making short films. They are films that tell the story of the problems of today's world. Leza hopes that looking at these problems with a laughing eye can help people to except the new future. The world definitely needs to laugh more.