About

Indie Artists Club was formed out of my heart’s desire to create a sanctuary for artists and their creations. Whether you’re an emerging painter, a seasoned sculptor, author, poet or a performer with a story to tell, our doors are open. We invite you to join our community and showcase your talents and creations.

Hello! I’m Leigh Ann Edrich, an internationally known fine artist with a winning streak of 68 exhibitions, publications and awards in 2023 which has continued into 2024 and now totals 74 consecutive wins. I’m also an artist/performing artist mentor and founder of a system of websites that help creative and talented folks, worldwide.

I’m known in the art world as ILIA, my artist name. I specialize in art that takes people to places they haven’t been before. My Dreamscapes are fantasy forms and designs that are fused together into digital art which simulates the colors of nature and space, and are intended to reach a person with the message that purposes, dreams and goals can become a reality. My dreamscapes adorn the homes and businesses of collector’s worldwide. I’ve also successfully mentored artists for over twenty years; many have gone on to achieve their dreams. I’m an advocate for The Arts, Human Rights, Artists Rights and Religious Freedom.

Here’s a lovely explanation of my activities by another:

ILIA started her artistic career at a very young age. Besides her artistic creations, her passion later turned into helping other artists and creative people use their talents to create and expand their own artistic careers. She founded Help-2-Succeed more than 20 years ago and several other websites as a working system that help creatives find their footing and get on a path to pursuing their passions full time.

A multi-talented artist that creates in every part of her life, Ilia began painting while maintaining a poetic pen pal relationship with a man named Ralph Grimes, who one day she sent a drawing to. After he hung up the sketch and he told her of how many admirers praised the work, her confidence and purpose as an artist was cemented. Inspired by the creativity of her mother and grandfather through gardening, she learned at a mere three years of age and beyond that ‘life is a canvas’ upon which we create. She continued her poetry, yet was urged by Grimes to try her hand at painting. Her path was set. Known for her ability to communicate exactly what the viewer wants in her commissioned pieces, she sold her first wonderful work in 1987, titled ‘Cosi Fan Tuti.’ Her first check for this validated her increasingly growing ability as an artist.

Ilia weaves a very spiritual feeling into both her writings and art. Schooled by independent teachers, predominantly Mr. Grimes who held an MFA from Columbia University, she was rooted further in her work by teachings in Classical, Jazz, Big Band and more.

Following the lyrical pulse of life, when Ilia paints, creates digital fine art or writes, she listens to music. Influenced by Mozart, Vivaldi, Loeillet, Telemann, Purcell, Beethoven, Hayden, Bach, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and old time jazz, among more, these sounds help breathe life into her poetic, painterly work. Also heavily influenced by writer, poet, photographer, musician, and filmmaker L. Ron Hubbard, whose rational philosophy has guided her life, as well as inventor and artist Leonardo Di Vinci – she dubs her style as Dreamscapes as it has different colors and flows-reminiscent of her varying high minded influences from art and musical composition to philosophy.

Ilia states that she creates art in order to ‘inspire others to create.’ Indeed, her visions for her life, even beyond the canvas, are bright and noble. She adds, “I help other artists to make a living with their art because I found out that once I inspire others to create it elevates us all up higher-myself included. And- at times that person isn’t going to continue unless there is a way or even several ways in which to make a living with their art, so I like to help teach them to do that.”