American Artist ~ Jeff LeFever

Artist Jeff LeFever has mastered many creative disciplines, from airbrush illustrations to mixed-media fine art and photography. His career started with a degree in traditional illustration. His creative journey has developed ever since. From working with giants of the candy, gift, and beverage industries—to traveling through 58 cities across 10 countries, photo-documenting more than 400 churches in a study of the intersection of the aesthetic consecrated space and Christian theology. From visualizing Clouds within Crosses interpreting Biblical books—to a re-imagining Pierrot Lunaire, Op 21 for conductor Ben Makino. Large-scale projects include painting a skateboard halfpipe for Warner Brothers, tradeshow booths for WB, Fox Television, and Compaq Computers, and painting all the Wyland tile murals in Laguna Beach, California. From selling original fine art paintings in various shows and galleries—to having a one-person show at a small museum. From creating abstract photographs from several scrap yards of the top scrapping company in the United States—to developing a new kind of conceptual photography during the 2020 pandemic. It has been quite a journey in the visual arts, one for which Jeff is grateful and fortunate to continue.

That and more is why I am excited to feature Jeff in my American Artist Appreciation Month series. I first met Jeff in 1995 at an AIRSTORM airbrush event, where he created an illustration of a large banana. Later, as I followed his journey, I fell in love with his whimsical illustrations of zebras wearing sunglasses and other works over the following decades. Thirty years later, I’m still a fan.