about the exhibit

The West Nebraska Arts Center, with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to present The Words He Cannot Say by Leo Bird and Telling My Story Cirrus House Show.  The reception is on Thursday, August 29th 5pm – 7pm.

There will be two shows in our Bronson Gallery. We are honored that Leo Bird will also do a presentation along with his show the night of the reception. Both shows highlight the importance of mental health awareness. They will be in our gallery for two months.

artist bios

Leo Bird

Leo Bird is the cartoonist of the graphic memoir The Words He Cannot Say who writes true stories about fitting in, building talent and character, and autism, as he has autism. Leo graduated from Central College in Pella, Iowa in 2014. His artistic medium is Staedtler markers on a drawing pad. He lives in Des Moines with a cat, works at the United States Postal Service, and likes to rock climb. Leo started writing stories in 2013 and spoke to a class about autism. In 2018, he discovered and performed at the open mic stand-up comedy scene in Des Moines. In 2019, he experimented by incorporating drawings into his stories after his story that used a drawing to compare two different dormitory set ups proved to be funny, and the way that worked for him was to point at the drawings with a laser pointer when he referred to them when he spoke. Then he won second place three times in an open mic competition. At the end of 2019, he changed his art style after taking an art class at the Des Moines Art Center and reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. In 2020, he was featured on the podcasts Nothing’s Too Weird, They Came from The Underground, and 900 Views. He was also on the comedy show Shark Attack at Tee Hee’s. He was on the comedy show series Last Call at the Mistress Brewing Company three times. In 2021, Leo performed at Clash of the Comics at the Funny Bone. His self-portrait was displayed at the Iowa State Fair, Stranger Discover and Work Weeks were displayed at the Momentum Art Exhibition at Mainframe Studios, and he had a seventeen-drawing exhibition at the Des Moines Public Library. In 2022, he performed for twenty minutes at the show The Nice Guys at the Mistress Brewing Company and performed for ten minutes at Night for a Cause at the Talent Factory. Leo also had a rock climbing drawing displayed at the Ankeny Art Center, a drawing comparing angry strangers and family to happy running teammates displayed at the Oak Park Art League in Illinois, drawings showing the process of how friends are made and how Central College’s church group webpage is more inviting than being yelled at by an RA at the 2022 Momentum exhibition, won honorable mention at the Heritage Gallery twice with a drawing of him looking for somewhere to eat at lunch called Where’s My Buddy?. In 2023, Leo had an exhibit at the Heritage Gallery with the Sunny Porch and Jill Wells, a solo exhibit at the Octagon and Johnston Library, an immersive art exhibit adaptation of Where’s My Buddy? at Mainframe Studios, won first place at the Oak Park Art League with the drawing Where’s My Buddy?, and group exhibits with the North River Arts Council at the Simpson College Gallery, Johnston Library at the Simpson Barn, and Momentum at Mainframe Studios respectively. In January through March 2024, he had solo exhibits with the Oskaloosa Art Center and Creston Arts, and a group exhibit at the Octagon. In May 2024, he had a group exhibit with Corning Center of Fine Arts. In 2025, he will have an art exhibit with the Kansas City Public Library.

Leo Bird Artist Statement

“I, Leo Bird (b. 1991, Ames, Iowa) was diagnosed with autism when I was three years old and created the graphic memoir The Words He Cannot Say. In this memoir I show how I overcame alienation and bullying, succeeded in my job search, and learned from mistakes through the patient help of parents, teachers, and classmates. From analyzing my past, I learned how I or someone else could have acted differently so the conflict could have had a better outcome. I write and draw to provide commentary on actions that my peers and I took in the past, without being influenced by any book, movie, author, or genre. My work is life becoming art instead of art imitating life. Some parts of The Words He Cannot Say were written objectively enough to allow subjective opinions. Audiences react to it in ways that surprise me, and I learn from the audience. My stories inspire audiences to be kind, self-aware, courageous, and adventurous and have debunked myths. The artist I draw like is Alex Katz, whom I had not heard of before artists had analyzed my art. I aim to use a color scheme that creates the maximum amount of contrast between adjacent colors using the minimum amount of color. I got the idea for The Words He Cannot Say an interview in the summer between my junior and senior year of college in 2013. The interviewer suggested I could teach people about autism. I thought I could do that by using the true storytelling techniques I learned in my Writing Short Stories Class. When I shared my stories, I learned that neurotypicals (people without autism) and even cats and dogs faced the same challenges fitting in as I did and found the topic interesting, so I shifted the focus of The Words He Cannot Say to fitting in, building talent and character and allowed The Words He Cannot Say to lose the autism theme. This discovery further motivated me to write about my life.”

special thanks

A special thanks to volunteers Vic Bentley and Crystal Sandberg for their assistance in the gallery. And thank you to the West Nebraska Arts Center Board Members for providing food for the opening reception.

about WNAC

The West Nebraska Arts Center is a 501c3 cultural non-profit organization committed to education, awareness and excellence in the arts, serving the North Platte Valley Region.  WNAC is located at the corner of 1st Avenue and 18th Street in Scottsbluff, NE.  Visit the gallery free of charge Tuesday through Friday 10 to 5, Weekends from 1 to 5.  You can also visit our website for upcoming attractions at www.thewnac.com. Also, find us on Facebook.

show your support

WNAC is supported by local businesses and individuals who value having the Arts Center in our community.  Do you support WNAC with an annual membership gift?  If not, please consider joining our efforts.  Members of West Nebraska Arts Center receive first notification of our events.  Members also receive gallery postcards, a monthly newsletter, discounts gallery and gift shop purchases as well as classes, workshops, fundraiser tickets, and other special events.  You will also receive the WNAC newsletter and invitations to special events.  Activate or renew your membership online at www.thewnac.com, by visiting the Arts Center office, or call 308-632-2226.

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