Mesdaghi’s ‘What Color Is Your Sky’ being made into billboard art
The Alliance for the Arts has revealed the artists who’ve been chosen to participate in Art Lives Here 2.0. One of the terrific 12 is Leila Mesdaghi. Her digital collage, What Color is Your Sky, will be appearing on a billboard somewhere in Lee County in 2020.
Mesdaghi is 
known for combining emotional experiences with social responsibilities in both her visual and performance art, which uniquely enables her to connect with viewers in a visceral, evocative manner.
“I asked my friends around the world to look up at the sky, capture it, and send it to me,” says Leila of What Color Is Your Sky. “There is a Persian proverb that says: wherever you go the sky is the same color! Through these photos I am able to see what they see, and by sharing it in an art form, others can see it too.”
Mesdaghi often stands on uncomfortable ground and touches on social and political issues like war in the Middle East, the reflections of social media in society, the housing crisis in the U.S, and the price and promise of progress in her work. In addition to years of traditional painting, Leila has explored such varied disciplines and mediums as sculpture, printmaking and installation. In her most recent works, she has been merging performance with video and photography, exploring the spaces between presence and absence.
An Iranian-Colombian artist living in Fort Myers, Mesdaghi holds a BA in Law from Islamic Azad University of Tehran, Iran and a BA in Arts from Florida Gulf Coast University.
April 12, 2020.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.