"Objects empower people," says Leslie Leupp. Accordingly, he produces dramatic objects that live up to this tenet, granting the wearer power of choice and participation. Elaborately rigged and physically involving, Leupp's works transform the wearer into a user, increasing their active role in the artistic relationship.

Leupp enlists the most unusual materials and construction techniques to produce these involving works. Wielding such nontraditional materials as linoleum, Formica, vinyl, knitting needles, coils, and twigs with great skill, he explores the possibilities of suspension and tension, both within the piece and upon the wearer's body.

The dynamic tension that Leupp strives to create is tied to his view of the body as an active object experienced in the round. Whereas much jewelry is conceived as two-dimensional, resting on the body as a flat plane, Leupp alms to add projective forms and assertive new angles to the human body. His brooches, for example, are designed to be propped on the neck and shoulder.

All of these engineering and sculptural effects are geared to Leupp's overall goal of wearer responsibility I want you to be disturbed," says Leupp. I want some mental and physical discomfort, a mental awareness, a commitment."