Grace Ann Leadbeater is an artist who invests a lot of time in self-defense practices. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Currently, she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in writing at Columbia University. Grace Ann grew up in Central Florida and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
About ‘Right This Very Second’:
As a child, I believed that I had to reach out and grab time with my two hands and hold it down like one would with a wounded doe as to not let it escape, for it could injure itself further. This notion has not left me, and the flux of it often leaves me sore. I find myself reaching far and wide just to gaze at something or someone a little bit longer. To feel things for a little while more. There is this fluidity surrounding me and I can sense it rising with each year, and while I try to bend with it, I tell myself that the now now now is what I want. After all, by design, it’s supposed to be that way. But that’s where I stop, as I’m not equipped with scientific terms. I just can’t make myself appear more intelligent than I am. And while I do become mute when it comes to the methodical, I can tell you and show you what I see—how the color red startles and invigorates me, how the light running along my friend’s face is something I could look at for a very, very long time.
These images are mainly a collection of my own emotional expedition—of what I probe at incessantly because I’m so in love with everything I get close to. Call them documentary; call them a visual journal; call them a love letter. Anything you wish to label them as is okay. What is certain, though, is that I know there is a pattern to everything I am drawn to, from people who look at me for longer than what is considered acceptable to structures that simply won’t give out. Their perseverance to remain in these holes of the now is something I am not only captivated with but also cling to. I compare the alive to the inanimate and it all becomes present. Often I find myself looking at things and thinking, “You are here, looking at this right this very second.” And then I feel the inclination to pull out my camera because I want to remember what that very second felt like. I know that one day I’m going to miss it so much.
