Leigh Lindsay, One Heck of a Gal.

Chakra Mountain aka. Leigh is Fifty, 8x10”, watercolor on paper

Leigh Lindsay is one special gal. She’s one of those people that has more minutes in every hour than most functioning humans. She owns a salon and spends most days there. She styles a good head of hair, but everybody sits in her chair to have a chance to talk with her because she is charming and hilarious and makes you feel like you are the best person. She spills the tea, usually with stories about people that are special to her. Which is most people. Sometimes she’s running late but no one cares because just taking a break from your day to sit on the couch in the salon is great. I think it might be the equivalent of a female barbershop maybe.

She also founded an independent film theatre long ago. It was gritty and fun and had art shows and music events and great movies. Three locations later, she still owns it but now it has expanded into a distillery and restaurant. (I just saw Paint there this evening. It’s great - stupid funny and about an artist’s life - what could be better?) This place, Zoetropolis, is one of the best places in Lancaster. The food is good. The booze is good. It’s a place where weirdos and oddballs feel at home, yet folks that you might think would be repelled by weirdos and oddballs also seem to also feel at home there too. Go figure!

painting of a cat by Leigh

But that’s not all, Leigh is an artist. That’s who she is. That’s how she sees the world. That’s how she walks through the world. She can’t really go more than a few days without painting and her paintings are great. Mostly portraits of people and animals, but she paints other stuff too. And if you tell her that you like one of her paintings she will probably just give it to you. I think her being an artist is part of how she feels so deeply. She is sort of a master at empathy and will give you the shirt off her back, figuratively speaking, well maybe literally, I don’t know.

She is the most giving friend I have ever had and I could have never gotten through this past year, the hardest of my life, without her. She has been the Obi-Wan Kenobi to my Luke in this hero’s journey. She turned 50 on March 31st and it would be impossible to give her a gift that could come close to matching her generosity, so I made her a painting because other than people, art is really all she cares about. I hope you have a Leigh-like person in your life. Everyone deserves one.

Oh yeah, did I tell you she is now a yoga teacher too?