Seeing this much of my work in one place,
I feel very grateful.
I never really anticipated anything like this
growing up.
I started selling paintings out of the back
of my car and I wasn't really embraced by
the art institutions of Miami.
So to be able to have my work in a museum,
it's another part of that pyramid.
I'm really excited to be here on a college
campus showing my work.
I grew up in a lot of libraries and places
of public learning, so to have my work be
exhibited in one of these places means a lot.
I've been fortunate to make a living as an
artist in the commercial world of art for
many years, so coming over and crossing over
into the museum world balances both of those
things out, and to me, I wouldn't want to
do either one exclusively, but being able
to do both, to me it's a perfect balance.
I teach classes in modern and contemporary
art history here at Arkansas State University.
We're very excited to have Lebo here.
I'm especially excited to bring my students
to see the exhibit.
I think his works are very engaging, very
colorful.
I'm especially excited about all the references
I see to art history in his paintings, everything
from Picasso to the Venus of Willendorf.
I think my students will be very inspired
by his works.
I started my art probably around eight or
nine years old, being attracted to comic strips,
particularly in the newspaper, and I never
would have imagined as a kid studying the
comic strips, tracing them at first, and eventually
drawing them and coming up with my own characters,
that 30-some odd years later that I'd be here
in a museum, having my work have this trajectory
so far that would land it a place like this
of higher learning, especially when it started
from such humble roots.
