Leigh McCloskey: Art as the Language of Creation | Talks 21

What if art is not just a form of expression, but the language through which we create our world? Artist Leigh McCloskey walked away from Hollywood to explore that question, and has spent more than forty years doing it.

You may know him as Mitch Cooper from Dallas. But Leigh has spent years hand-painting the inside of his own home in Malibu in California (US) – the floor, the walls, the ceiling, even the books – turning it into a single immersive artwork he calls The Hieroglyph of the Human Soul. We recorded this entire conversation inside that room.

He is also the creator of Tarot ReVisioned, seventeen-year exploration of the archetypes and symbolic structures of the tarot. For Leigh, art is not something we do for a living. It is the language we use to create who we are.

In this episode, we discuss:
🔹 Why art and science were once different tools for exploring the same questions, and what we lost when they drifted apart.
🔹 Leigh's belief that we are not here to arrive somewhere, but to unfold and grow – and why the moments when we feel most stuck may be exactly when something new opens.
🔹 How art can move and even heal us – not by explaining anything, but by letting us truly feel something.

🔗 If you would like to learn more about Leigh's work, you can find it at leighmccloskey.com.

Timestamps
0:00:00 Theme song
0:00:18 Introduction
0:01:38 Why Art and Science Were Never Meant to Be Separate
0:12:15 What a Home Can Give That the World Cannot
0:22:51 How Beauty Is Earned Rather Than Taken
0:33:38 Why We Are Here to Blossom Rather Than Arrive
0:46:06 What Happens When Power Becomes an Addiction
0:56:21 How Being Ordinary Lets Us Finally Be Ourselves
1:05:46 Where You Can Learn More About Leigh's Work

🔔 Subscribe to the channel and watch more interviews:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaJaxm7F1tK58bEnVoVliqg?sub_confirmation=1

Listen to the Talks 21 podcast also on:

🎧 Spotify → https://bit.ly/spotify-talks21

🎧 Apple Podcasts → https://apple.co/3VWWzwv

🌐 Official website of Karel Janeček:

https://www.kareljanecek.com

📲 Follow Karel Janeček on social media:

Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/karel252/

Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/kareljanecekcz

📩 Want to receive new episodes by email? Subscribe to the newsletter on the website.

💬 Do you have a guest suggestion or feedback? Write to us at:

media@kareljanecek.com