An Inspired Chat with Leah Steiner of Midtown

We recently had the chance to connect with Leah Steiner and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Leah, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? When was the last time you felt true joy?
Actually tonight at dinner, January 6, 2026. I made dinner for a new friend and it was one of those friendships that from the moment you start hanging it feels like you are best friends. Making friends as adults is hard and can be scary, but you also find your people and with that comes true and pure joy.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Leah Steiner and I am 26 year old self taught artist from Chapel Hill, Nc. I graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2021 with a bachelors in Communication and Women and Gender Studies. I have always been a creative person but it wasn’t until 2020 that I started using that creativity in an artistic way. For my capstone Women and Gender studies class, I chose Art in Activism and it was during that class I found myself in a full blown love affair with art and artistic expression. My group ended up winning the first ever Creative Activism Award for our project titled “Mutant.”

Over the past 6 years, I have painting, experimenting with acrylics, oils, and watercolors. I branched out, exploring charcoal, sewing, sculpting, and poetry. Now, I mix and match all these mediums to create expressionism pieces that vary in size and primarily explore themes of female sexuality and pareidolia: the ability to find meaning in the mundane.

Iv been living in Atlanta, Ga for almost 4 years now and it’s been the place where my art career has really blossomed and with that has come an amazing creative community. It is because of that community that I was introduced to sewing. Learning how to sew changed everything for me. It allowed me to really create a brand and think about how my art career could actually become a sustainable business.

For the past 2 years, I have been working on a collection of denim jackets, each with a face sewed onto the back and story sewed onto the inside. “Life is Short” is the brand name I chose to use for the wearable art for many reasons but most notably, my full name is Leah Israel Steiner…LIS…Life is Short. Not only do the initials match up, but Life is Short, despite being a total cliché, captures the essence behind the wearable art.

I mentioned the term “pareidolia” which refers to the tendency to perceive a specific meaning in random or ambiguous visual patterns. Ever since I was a little girl, I could find a face in just about anything I looked at. The first jacket I made, I had no intentions of creating a face; Instead I was practicing patchwork. It was not long before a face appeared within the denim scraps though and forgetting all about the patch work, I followed my intuition and created a face. Life is Short, therefore I intend to follow my intuition. Life is short so I choose to wear clothes that make me smile. Life is Short so I wish to find the meaning in small moments in life, the moments when you sit next to a stranger and decide to speak to them, to understand their story.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
The moment that shaped how I see the world is when I allowed myself to understand that art is not just something that I do, but it is who I am to my core. This realization allowed me to be kinder to myself, to love more, to ease my ego. It helped me understand why I am quick to get emotional about everything, why I feel the weight of the world, why I become depressed when I don’t have a creative outline. All the ways I have learned to show up for myself, are the ways I have learned to show up and see this world.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?

Dear younger self.

“You are too much” is a comment you will hear often.
It will hurt your feelings.
Make you want to be small.
Laugh quietly.
Speak softer.
But you are perfect
Just the way you are.

There is SO MUCH waiting for you,
But you wouldn’t believe me if I told you
So trust me when I say
Keep being you
Keep being TOO MUCH for everyone
It’ll pay off…and who knows maybe you’ll end up being interviewed about your art.

Love,
26 year old Leah

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
Fads are something you can see, a foundational shift is something can you feel. When I think about my art, specifically the denim jackets I make, denim jackets are a fad, they come and go. The faces and stories I create on the jackets are representational of finding meaning in life and learning lessons along the way, both which bring about foundational shifts. They are intended to leave you with a lasting feeling, something perminate, rather than just another piece of disposable peice of clothing.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
At 26 I can happily said that I am doing exactly what I am born to do and that’s be an artists. There are some people that do art and there are others that are artists. When you are an Artist, art is not just something you do, it is everything you do; from the way you see cars pass by and notice the colors, tints, hues, or the lines that the buildings make, the shadow trees branches make when all the leaves have fallen off. Being an artist means having an unconditional love for all that exists and excites your senses and being able to express that in some shape, way, or form. It is unconditional love, no matter how lows the lows are, you will get up every day do it all over again because you need the highs to live.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leahsteiner.art
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahsteiner.art/