See life as a cube, never as a square

With Covid-19 changing our lives and perspectives forever, a whole new generation of creatives, independent, thriving people has been created. If what was happening brought everyone together, with similar fears and insecurities, some of us found themselves through this process of reinventing our lives. Xavier Leopold, aka Xavi Art, is a brilliant example. French by birth and raised in South London, this drop-out student with a career of ten years in financial trading became a fine artist in April 2020. 

How did you approach painting and the creative industry itself?

“It’s a bit weird because I didn’t really approach it with a creative hat on. I had been through a lot growing up, and I’m not the best when it comes to communicating my thoughts, emotions, or experiences. I dropped out of University within a couple of months. I’m a trader, been doing this for almost ten years. I took an unconventional steps into the industry.

“Having bad mental health, experiencing depression, getting help, finishing my therapy sessions all helped, but then going into lockdown, it changed my perspective. During lockdown the world slowed down so I had no real support. I think about around five months before lockdown, I broke up with my ex-girlfriend, so I was basically in the house by myself. In that moment I thought, ‘I’m just going to face my thoughts and my insecurities’. I’m not the greatest at writing so I thought you know what, I’m trying to pick up a pencil. I had a canvas under my bed because I said I was going to do something two years ago and I never did it. I thought let me just express myself, and I did.” 

What did you do differently from other artists besides your unconventional first steps?

“The thing for me is how I think about the creative industry. I always admired it because you’re able to take what is here and turn it into something different. And for me that’s magic for me; being able to think about music, art or poetry and being able to express yourself. That’s a part of you, of your world, but also other people can appreciate it. It’s beautiful. So, I just got addicted to it.”

As a very new artist you grew a lot in less than a year. A BBC interview, sponsored exhibition and a mental health project alongside a mentoring scheme for kids… How did you do it?

“I can’t even give you an intelligent answer, literally it all gravitated towards me. I stayed true and I just stay being me, and somehow, magically, that’s working. I feel that is an important element, just being real and just being you. And I love what I’m doing. Everything that I do, whether it’s the painting or the content or anything else … It’s all just an expression of me, I’m not trying to be anyone else. I’m not trying to be somebody who I think people might want me to be or I’m not trying to paint what I think people might want to see.

I just do whatever comes from within, I feel like it’s easier for me to do that and everything still gravitates towards me. I still have companies around, BBC etc… I don’t feel as nervous with them. All I am, is being true and genuine and authentic. I used my exhibition at the OXO Gallery to raise money for charity, which I’m going to close off soon. And for BLM (black lives matter) which provides black individuals and families private therapy sessions for people who experienced trauma, depression or something similar to it. I’ve raised about £4.6k and my sponsor, which is also the company I’m working for as a trader, is going to double-up. And that would provide around 130 therapy sessions.” 

How did all of these lead into having iCan, your workshop with children?

“I always had a vision, even before I was an artist. I always had a vision about helping kids tap into their creativity. Limiting their creative minds to just an art class where they tell you what to do and you automatically do it, has nothing to do with creativity.

“But, if you teach kids the concept of creativity itself they are able to think outside the box and actually express themselves. You’re basically giving birth to geniuses. They can use that on anything – they can use it for maths, they can use it for science, they can use it for literally anything.

“I just felt that was an important field to go into. I’ve been to three schools so far and I’m going in there and leaving so satisfied because I am teaching them that they can be whatever they want. I’m a trader, I’m an artist, I’m a podcaster, I’m a designer (me and my friend have a clothing brand as well). I am all these different things because I don’t see any limits. I am only seeing this in my late-20s and they’re in primary school, they’re unstoppable. They can literally put their hand on their heart and say, ‘okay, if this older guy can do it, I can do it as well.’ 

“And you leave them planting their own seed. Some of those kids will be architects one day, some of these kids might be the next Elon Musk. My motto in life is to not look at life as a square but to look at life as a cube. You know, life is dimensional.

Finally, what does the future have in store for you?

“There are quite a few good things on the way. Without revealing too much. I’ve had private schools overseas, in Switzerland and other countries that want me to go over there and bring iCan with me. I’ve had a well-known publishing house wanting to partner with me and do educational/creative books for kids. And another big corporation is looking to sponsor my next exhibition. It was supposed to take place in April, focused on religion. Not all of my pieces will be religious, but I think it ties in with the fact that I feel like I’ve entered into a new chapter of my life and for that reason it’s like a Renaissance. I’m fascinated with Leonardo Da Vinci because he was a multifaceted man: he was a philosopher, a scientist, an artist and he was more than one thing. And that’s how I view myself, as a multifaceted person.

“The time frame ties with Easter and my birthday. I was going to call it ‘reborn’, which reminds me of one of my previous pieces, a self-portrait resembling a phoenix.”