It began like any other evening class at The Art Students’ League on West 57th Street in New York City. After work surrounded by the smell of turpentine, oil paint, naked models, old gray metal lockers, creaky wooden chairs and easels, I sat and sometimes stood from 6:30-9:45pm painting.

"From the Window", acrylic on canvas, 28" x 22", by Diane Leon.

On that warm May evening the studio across the hall was having a class party. While I painted the sound of an alto saxophone echoed into the room. As I worked the music changed the mood in the whole room.

When the class broke for fifteen minutes I asked who was playing the sax. The students pointed to a young, tall man with dark curly hair and moustache who appeared to be in his late twenties. I went over, introduced myself and told him how much I enjoyed his playing. I was 30, blonde, slim and assertive. Even though I worked in an office I still wore casual pants and a sweater, he wore jeans and an African dashiki top. I was a single woman, independent, worked since I was 18 and was dedicated to the creative process. My full time job was needed not only to support myself, but I also maintained an apartment in Spain.

As we spoke in the hallway and looked into each other’s eyes there was a relaxed and comfortable feeling between us. I could tell by the way he spoke he was somewhat shy and not as outgoing as myself. At the next break we shared our backgrounds. Both of us came from Italian families, he lived on Charles Street in Greenwich Village and I lived in Queens and worked across the street from the League; he was born in the Bronx and I grew up in Manhattan. By the end of the night, he said he would meet me next week, same time, same place and would bring me my favorite Italian dessert, canolli.

"Hot and Cool", acrylic on canvas, 14" x 18" by Diane Leon.

I told him that after next week’s class I was going to Spain and wouldn’t be back to school until September. I had all the intentions of exchanging phone numbers the next time we met.

The next week I became sick with a virus. I tried calling the school and asked if there was any way they could bring a message to someone in the class. But, they said no. I decided that if it was meant to be we would see one another when I returned from Spain.

Upon my return I went to the art school and asked if there was any student who knew John. Fortunately they told me to ask for a friend of his in summer school class. I met him and got John’s phone number.

That night I called and made a date to have dinner. During the meal after I talked about Spain, painting, and our upcoming fall semester. I asked what he was up to and he responded, “You won’t believe it, but I met a girl a week after classes ended on the way home and we’ve been dating.” My heart sank, my luck, my timing. I didn’t want to act disappointed, but asked if it was serious and he said, “No, we don’t have any commitment to each other. We’ve gone out three or four times.” Once we started to date, she was out of the picture. He realized they didn’t have enough in common to form a serious relationship.

We dated for a year and then got married in Church of Our Savior on 38th Street and Park Avenue. We had our honeymoon in Spain, where else. The romance has lasted because we are committed to our art and one another. We support each other, still have our Friday night dates and share house chores. We’ve been married for twenty-eight years.

From that first meeting at The Art Students League in 1978 to now we have lived a life filled with purpose. We are focused on our life as artists. We share a room as our studio and have work side-by-side. John is a day person and on the weekends gets up at 5am and works in the studio while I sleep until 12noon. On the other hand I’m a night person and prefer to work late into the night. I love knowing all the chores are done and this is my own time.

Over the years our style has evolved. My passion was landscape in oils. At school I drew and painted the figure but preferred the elements of nature. John did portraits, still life and some landscape. His work first moved towards an expressionist style and then when we spent time in Cadaques, Spain the home turf of Salvador Dali and a young Picasso inspired John to create his own cubism. John told me, “Once I saw that landscape and architecture, it just came alive I understood how to see that way.”

In September of 1984 we had an exhibition at the Colegio Farmaceutios de Alicante ( Spain). It consisted of fifty-four works of my landscapes and John’s cubist work. From pen and inks to oils it was an exciting show. We had the work framed and matted in town. We were in the local newspaper and the president of the college asked for one work each to add into their permanent collection.

In the mid-eighties I began to get frustrated with the limits of landscape. Nature was still my inspiration but I no longer wanted to think about a horizon line, sky, water, land, etc. I wanted to paint what was inside of me rather than outside. I told John how I felt and said, “I want to do abstract work.” He smiled at me and said, “Then just do it. Paint what you feel, don’t be afraid to try something new.”

I enrolled in a color theory class at The National Academy of Design because Wolf Kahn was teaching and I have always admired his pastel and oil paintings. The class gave me the courage to believe I could become an abstract painter and did. Over the years I switched from oils to acrylics because I work quickly and part of my process is change and painting over and over.

I also do collage work and incorporate images of Spain. I created seventeen works with the theme on Post-Franco Spain: A Cultural Metamorphosis. I had a solo show of the works at LaGuardia Community College years ago. I believe in myself and in my work. I also share this enthusiasm with others at New York University since 1995 as an adjunct associate professor of arts. I teach fundamentals of painting and a collage class. People need to surround themselves with others who support what they do and in turn they will succeed.

For any relationship or passion to endure you need to be true to yourself. John and I have spent a lifetime sharing what we love most, one another, our art and Spain. Of course, New York will always be our special place for love and creating our art. We love this city because it’s home. We grew up on the streets, parks and in the museums. It fostered our drive to create and still inspires. Whether we are in a gallery or jazz club or just walking around the city we feel the energy and are so happy that we found one another at The Art Students League.

View more of Diane Leon's art in the Online Gallery.

Read Diane's article on how to balance art and life.