solo exhibit by Allison leeds

Held in Color

November 2026 - January 2027
UCSF Mission Bay Hospital Main Lobby
1855 4th Street, San Francisco

Free admission. All are welcome.

Illness and recovery may leave us holding feelings that are difficult to explain.

Grief for a body that has changed.
Uncertainty about what comes next.
Moments of beauty we can still recognize.

Held in Color gives these feelings a place to exist together.

This work grew from my experience of cancer, surgery, and recovery paired with my study of 11,000+ patient experiences and color science research. 

Through watercolor, poetry, and voice-directed art, I explore what happens when we give an unspoken feeling color and room to breathe.

voice as brush

Create art with your voice 

Make art without lifting a brush. Start with a feeling, color, or idea and shape a digital artwork by speaking. No painting experience needed.

 Create your own artwork

discover allison's story

It reminds us that we don't have to appear okay, that gratitude and grief can coexist, and that caring for our hearts matters, too.

The Artwork
Teal and turquoise watercolor with a handwritten note reading, "I see you. I'm here. I love you."

Watercolor + ink on paper · 10 x 10 in. ©2025 Allison Leeds

I See You

Years of avoiding wounds with disdain shifted when I attempted to touch scars tenderly, whispering: “I see you. I’m here. I love you.”

Rejection became presence.

What else might we heal through compassion?

Color Science

In an experiment with colored light, people exposed to green reported less anxiety than those exposed to red or yellow.

Jacobs & Suess, 1975
Abstract watercolor with translucent blue and teal washes beneath a pale field, divided by soft, uneven horizontal edges.

Watercolor on paper · 12.5 x 17 in. ©2026 Allison Leeds

Everything Matters More. Many Things Matter Less.

Illness can change the weight of things.

An ordinary conversation may become precious. A familiar worry may lose its hold. Gratitude and grief may arrive together.

This work holds that shifting perspective, the experience of seeing life differently while still finding our place within it.

Color Science

In a controlled experiment, heart rate decreased during exposure to blue panels compared with the baseline, while it increased during red and yellow conditions.

Al-Ayash et al., 2016
Nine colorful watercolor squares in a three-by-three grid, with handwritten reflections on fear, uncertainty, disorientation, grief, frustration, isolation, vigilance, acceptance, and purpose.

Watercolor + ink on paper · 9 x 12 in. ©2025 Allison Leeds

The Healing Spectrum

These watercolors emerged as I moved through healing, each one synthesizing patient stories and color science into emotional balms.

The paintings became containers for feelings that often go unspoken in clinical spaces, offering permission to honor the full spectrum of healing.

Color Science

In controlled experiments, brighter, more vivid colors produced stronger feelings of stimulation. Researchers also measured larger changes in skin conductance, a signal of the body’s activation.

Wilms & Oberfeld, 2018
Green watercolor surrounding concentric layers of torn pink paper, with handwritten words: “We miss what no one can see. Touch reminds us of what we cannot feel.”

Watercolor + ink on paper · 10 x 10 in. ©2026 Allison Leeds

Touch Reminds Us

Numbness and altered sensation from medical procedures may create distance between the body we remember and the body we inhabit now.

Torn paintings, space, and shadow give form to that distance, making room for loss and tenderness toward a body that has changed.

Color Science

Compared with dark virtual rooms, moderately light rooms produced smaller heart-rate increases. A 128-year review linked pink with contentment.

Weijs et al., 2023 · Jonauskaite & Mohr, 2025
Three abstract artworks with soft washes of color: lavender deepening into indigo, pale blue blending into blush, and pink above deep blue.

Voice-directed digital artwork ©2026 Allison Leeds

Voice as Brush

After surgery, I longed for paint, water, and soft paper. But moving my arms hurt, so I needed to rest them.

Determined to create, I gave an AI tool every painting I’d ever made and spoke my feelings, teaching it to pair those feelings with color science, extending my visual language into the paintings above when I couldn’t lift my paintbrush.

Start Your Own Voice as Brush

Color Science

In a controlled virtual-room experiment, a muted-blue environment produced higher frontal-midline alpha EEG activity than a white room. This study measured a room environment, not responses to these paintings.

Bower et al., 2022
Phone displaying blue-green Held in Color artwork from Allison Leeds with the message “I see you. I’m here. I love you.”
  • Phone displaying blue-green Held in Color artwork from Allison Leeds with the message “I see you. I’m here. I love you.”
'I See You' Free Phone Wallpaper

'I See You' Free Phone Wallpaper

A little love to carry with you.

A small reminder that we don't always need the perfect words to show someone we care.

This free phone wallpaper features original artwork from Held in Color by Allison Leeds, founder of Love & Light Art.

What you'll receive:

  • One digital phone wallpaper (.JPG)

  • Artwork to use on your phone's lock screen or home screen

  • No physical product will be shipped

A little beauty. A little connection. Right there when you need it.
Download Your Free Wallpaper