The world can be a heavy place. Leah Diament hopes her artwork helps to lighten the collective load a bit.

“I am always attempting to find levity in the face of the enormity of the universe,” said Diament. She does this, she adds, by broaching the complex subjects she comes across with humor – in her life, in her art – and even in the titles of her works.

Take “Fug It,” a title that might suggest surrender. Lack of caring. Hopelessness. But Diament’s hand-printed collage exudes positivity. Restoration. Recharging. It shows a photo of a woman at rest, standing at a precarious 45-degree angle. She’s surrounded by lines and rectangles – perhaps the blueprint of a claustrophobic office space. But accented with real, vibrant pressed red flowers that soften the mood and suggest she’s in her (momentary) happy place. It’s a piece Diament does not copy but rather remakes on demand. No two in her series are alike.

She calls this artistic pursuit “Augmented Reality.” Her form is called “collage cyanotype,” which is a newer art form that combines different elements of photographs or hand-drawn elements to create a cohesive piece printed with cyanotype. That’s a photographic printing process that produces blue prints using coated paper and light.

It’s fun and breezy. But for Diament, it has also been a healthy way to process the harder things in life “in order to accept and move past them,” she said.

“A lot of my work is about trying to make sense of life and how to live it the best possible way. I don’t have that answer, but I do find it useful to try my best to understand what that means for me. I’m hoping that through the abstractness of my work and their vague meanings, people can use the work to start a conversation around these topics and come to their own decision and understanding as to what it means to them.”

Diament, a graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver, is shaking things up by trying to go as far as she can in this one medium in order to find the true boundaries of her chosen art form.

“I find constraints force my creativity into strange places I could have never found with total freedom,” she said. “Currently, I am using cyanotype and collage to create 3D origami figures. I have begun to experiment with both electrical components and lighting – and with oversized versions of these origami figures. The next step in this process will be adding in a performance aspect, which I very much look forward to seeing come together.”

Diament combined stop-motion film with hand-printed cyanotype for “Finding Steve,” a commissioned, 60-second video that was projected onto the D&F Clock Tower for Women’s History month throughout March.

“Finding Steve” begged the question: “Is dating even worth the hassle?” Giving up on what has for decades been accepted as a societal norm might be seen as cynical, but Diament saw it as a recognition of its ineffectiveness.

“As we strive to find happiness and satisfaction in our lives, we might find that listening to our own needs is more important than allowing the rest of the world to dictate them,” she said.

Art, Diament said in a previous interview, is what gets her heart rate up and her mind sparking.

“My art is this living, breathing thing that bounces around my head all day,” she said. “It’s bright splashes of color and illuminated city scenes. It is, at least in my mind, the world a little brighter or more honest.”

Editor’s note: For our 2023 fall arts preview, the Denver Gazette is profiling emerging artists who are introducing new ideas, voices, skills and approaches that are changing the ways audiences are experiencing and engaging with the arts. Look for the sixth installment in our series Thursday.

Meet the Artist: Leah Diament

• Hometown: Virginia City, Va.

• Home now: Denver

• Where can we see your work? I will be showing at Art on the Green on Sept. 16-17. That’s a free, all-Colorado art fair with incredible artists, food trucks, live music and incredible performances lined up at Curtis Park in Greenwood Village. I’d love to meet anyone who has the opportunity to stop by. I’ll be in Booth 10.

• What is the change you would like to see in our cultural ecology? I’d love to see more diversity in our community. Thankfully, I believe this is top-of-the-list for many people, and there are some changes happening to facilitate more inclusivity. Secondly, I’d love it if there weren’t such a divide between different expressions of art. I’d love to be a part of collaborations with musicians, writers, photographers and more.

• Shout out another local artist: Joshua Ware and Sharifa Moore are coming together at the Evans School (a creative work space in an historic former school in the Golden Triangle) to create incredible performances and engaging shows. Follow either one of them and take a deep dive into the artists they feature. Also: Walker Fine Art and Colorado Photographic Arts Center were both integral to my creative career.

• Your website: avagabondsvisual.com