ART WAR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

California painter, fine art book maker, activist, performance artist, writer, filmmaker Steven Johnson Leyba www.stevenleyba.com is no stranger to controversy over artistic political battles sparked from the suppression of his art and it’s censorship around the world. Leyba has embraced the warrior philosophy of his ancestors (Apache, Navajo, Cherokee, Creek) in his art for over twenty years challenging many systems of control from the U.S. Government, the F.B.I., celebrities, politicians, tribal elders, Christianity, museums, galleries, other artists, fellow Satanists and censorship on many levels.
Leyba 13th hand painted book “MONSANTO” is a critique and exploration of the multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation that gave us AGENT ORANGE and D.D.T. and now has created sterile “Terminator Seeds” that are contaminating the food source worldwide. Monsanto without argument is the most hated corporation on the planet for many reasons including patenting existing seeds worldwide and politically targeting farmers who do not use their products. Leyba will be starting his MONSANTO book in Montreal to Curse Monsanto in a “BED IN” that re-creates John & Yoko’s 1969 Montreal Bed-in for Peace in order to declare War on Monsanto or rather for PEACE against the multinational corporation that is currently engaged in what Leyba calls “a biological war against humanity”. Leyba wants them to cut their losses and end their war on the world.
“John Lennon and Yoko Ono chose Canada to protest the Vietnam War to the world and I chose Montreal for the same reasons to protest Monsanto’s war on the world. As an American I am forced to ingest the poisons of their Genetically Modified Organism’s (G.M.O.’s) of Monsanto. Their Genetically Modified foods are not labeled in the United States and much of the scientific data about the dangerous effects of eating G.M.O.’s is being suppressed. The same company that gave the world Agent Orange and D.D.T. Monsanto has waged a biological and economic war on the world by altering and contaminating the world’s food source and making laws to suppress any discourse. In the U.S. it is against the law in 13 States to make unflattering comments about their food products we are forced to eat (see “Veggie Libel Laws” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_libel_law s) . Rather than merely paint protest paintings I am painting the TOTALITY of my own experience and emotions and rage surrounding this internal invasion of my being and biology from this huge multinational corporation that has given me no choice in the foods I eat. Monsanto has waged war on my biology and with my creations I am waging an aesthetic, emotional and magical war on Monsanto”, says Leyba

Leyba’s exhibition and BED IN performance is part of a week long Satanic Festival in Montreal and his documentary “What Is Art? Inside the Mind of the Artist as They Speak the Truth” which is an exploration of TRUE ART and an attack on the apathetic Post Modern era. His film will be one of many films that will be screened at the festival.

Steven Johnson Leyba is the author of several books including “COYOTE SATAN AMERIKA”
http://books.google.com/books?id=dvU3flphv34C&printsec=frontcover&dq=coyote+satan+amerika&hl=en&ei=bhCpTI6EJoasAO2o_ihDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false and his memoir “The Last American Painter; http://books.google.com/books?id=Bj1nPgAACAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s