Step inside Leah’s studio. 💫 Understanding an artist’s process sometimes can help us understand ours.
“Borrowed Memories” is about our shared human experience. We invite you to explore it at cratedstore.com
“Upside Down” by Leah Mendez
Some people just refuse to pose like everyone else. In this found photograph, two friends stand for the camera while a third turns the whole frame on its head. Leah Mendez painted this anonymous snapshot and kept everything that makes it so alive: the spontaneity, the humor, the particular energy of being young and not taking anything too seriously.
The brushwork is loose and warm, holding the scene the way memory does, just precise enough to feel real, just soft enough to feel like something you half remember.
This piece is part of “Borrowed Memories,” Leah’s latest collection of oil works at Crated Store. Each painting is an invitation to inhabit a history that isn’t yours until you hang it on your wall.
Collect “Upside Down” and explore the rest of the collection at cratedstore.com
“From eBay” by Leah Mendez
Unselfconscious, unbothered, entirely herself. Leah Mendez found this moment in a stranger’s photograph on eBay and painted it the way it deserved to be seen. Close, warm, and without apology.
Leah’s hand renders the figure with tenderness and confidence. Soft pinks against deep warm skin, painted with the kind of attention that turns a found image into something that feels like a quiet act of celebration. You recognize this freedom even if you can’t name it.
From eBay is part of Borrowed Memories, our current collection with Leah. Small works built from found photographs, reinterpreted through oil, and made to feel like something you already know. Explore the full collection and bring one home at cratedstore.com 🤍
“Photo of a Photo” by Leah Mendez
A moment, frozen twice. Leah Mendez captures the layered act of witnessing a camera pointed back at the viewer, a cigarette held in mid-thought and us looking at the painting.
In “Photo of a Photo,” the brushstrokes are thick and deliberate, mimicking the fuzzy, imprecise edges of a memory you’re trying to hold onto. It’s not just a painting of a group; it’s a painting of the distance between the person behind the lens and the people in the frame. It feels familiar, like a vintage slide found in a box, yet entirely new in its reimagined texture.
This piece is part of “Borrowed Memories”, Leah’s latest collection of oil works at Crated Store. Each painting is an invitation to inhabit a history that isn’t yours until you hang it on your wall.
Collect “Photo of a Photo” and explore the rest of the collection at cratedstore.com
“Backseat” by Leah Mendez
Two people, a shared backseat and everything that goes unspoken. Leah Mendez found this moment in a photograph and painted it the way memory works. Close enough to feel, too soft to fully grasp.
The warmth of a fur coat, a face caught between here and somewhere else, another presence just at the edge. Leah leaves the rest to you.
“Backseat” is part of Borrowed Memories, our current collaboration with Leah. Small works built from found photographs, reinterpreted through oil, and made to feel like something you already know.
Explore the full collection and bring one home at cratedstore.com
“Dancing” by Leah Mendez
Some moments don’t need an explanation. Leah Mendez knew that when she found this photograph and knew it again when she painted it. Two people, moving together, inside the quiet of their own home. That’s all we know and that’s enough.
Painted in warm rose and soft cream, Leah’s intuitive hand dissolves the edges just enough to turn a moment into a feeling. The details fall away and what remains is pure presence. You find yourself filling in the rest.
“Dancing” is part of Borrowed Memories, our current collection with Leah. Small works built from found photographs, reinterpreted through oil, and made to feel like something you already know.
Explore the full collection and bring one home at cratedstore.com
“Astrolite” by Leah Mendez
The feeling of a Saturday that belongs entirely to you. A child absorbed in play, the Hasbro Astrolite game spread across the kitchen table, the world outside completely irrelevant. A scene pulled from a found photograph and painted with the kind of warmth that makes you feel like you were there too.
Leah’s hand is loose and intentional. The wallpaper pattern softened into suggestion, the figure rendered with just enough detail to feel real and just enough restraint to feel like a memory. The painting doesn’t try to document the moment, it tries to hold it.
“Astrolite” is part of Borrowed Memories, our current collection with Leah. Small works built from found photographs, reinterpreted through oil, and made to feel like something you already know.
Explore the full collection and bring one home at cratedstore.com
“Too Soon” by Leah Mendez
That childhood itch to grow up before you’re ready. Leah captures it simply and warmly. A boy, razor in hand, shaving cream on his cheek, already practicing at being someone he hasn’t become yet. A scene so specific it could only have come from a found photograph, and yet so universal it feels like something you’ve seen before, maybe even lived.
Painted in Leah’s signature intuitive style, the figure is rendered with warmth and loose precision. Rich terracottas and creamy whites, a blurred reflection at the edge of the frame that suggests more than it shows, she leaves just enough out to let you in.
“Too Soon” is part of Borrowed Memories, our current collection with Leah. Small works built from found photographs, reinterpreted through paint, and made to feel like something you already know. explore the full collection and bring one home at cratedstore.com 🤍
“Borrowed Memories” is here, and we’re so happy to share it with you.
We’ve all had the experience of looking at a photograph of a stranger and feeling, somehow, like we recognize the moment. A child’s expression, a family reunion, a fleeting gesture, a glimpse of something that feels closer than it should.
The works in this collection are small in format and expansive in feeling. Scenes of everyday life, rendered with enough softness to leave room for you inside them. They are not quite someone else’s memories anymore. and they are not quite yours. They live somewhere in between, and that’s exactly where they’re meant to be.
Explore Borrowed Memories now at cratedstore.com 🤍
We’re so excited to announce our next collaboration with artist @leah_mendez a Miami-based oil painter with a background in psychology. Leah builds her practice around found photographs, images sourced from archives, flea markets, and online platforms that she reinterprets through an intuitive, tender hand.
Her technique consists on blurring, subtracting, letting the paint do what the photograph couldn’t. Together, we’ve created “Borrowed Memories”, available this Sunday. Can’t wait to share it with you all.
#art #artist #painting #contemporaryart
