I'm Charissa Leitch, also known as the Lizard Queen, a multidisciplinary artist and creative director behind Lizard Queen Conceptuals.
My artistic practice exists at the intersection of sustainability, surrealism, storytelling, and imaginative transformation. Working primarily in mixed media and collage, I breathe new life into forgotten materials, creating intricate visual narratives that challenge conventional perceptions of value, beauty, and waste.
I believe creativity is not defined by what we have, but by what we can imagine something becoming. Guided by this philosophy, my work embraces a series of Lizard Queen Concepts that shape both my creative process and my relationship with the world around me
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Material Selection:
Finding Potential in the Forgotten
My commitment to sustainability begins with the materials I choose. Discarded paper, forgotten fabrics, salvaged wood, and leftover supplies become the foundations of my work. By reclaiming and reimagining these materials, I challenge the notion that something loses its value simply because it has outlived its original purpose.
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Eco-Conscious Practices:
Creating with Intention
Approximately 90% of the materials I use are recycled, reclaimed, or second-hand. Thrift stores, vintage shops, discarded books, and the forgotten treasures of friends provide an ever-evolving collection of creative possibilities. Each material carries a history, and incorporating these histories into my work allows me to create something new while honouring what came before.
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Imaginative Repurposing:
The Art of Transformation
My creative process is an exercise in seeing beyond the obvious. Torn maps become landscapes, book pages become portraits, and fragments of fabric become intricate textures. Through layering, juxtaposition, and experimentation, seemingly unrelated materials come together to form unexpected compositions. Repurposing is more than a sustainable practice; it is an art form in itself.
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Sensory Sensitivity:
A World Beyond the Visible
My heightened sensory awareness and hyperphantasia play an integral role in how I experience and create art. With an intensely vivid visual imagination, I explore the relationships between colour, texture, language, memory, and emotion. My work often begins as an elaborate internal image that gradually takes physical form through the careful arrangement of materials. These layered compositions invite viewers to look closer, discover hidden details, and construct interpretations of their own.
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Message of Renewal:
Reimagining Value
At the heart of my practice is a simple belief: the discarded is not necessarily devoid of value.
What others overlook, I see as possibility. Through my work, I hope to encourage a shift in how we perceive the objects and materials surrounding us. Sustainability need not be viewed as a sacrifice or limitation, but as an invitation to innovate, experiment, and create.
Every fragment has potential. Every imperfection has character. Every discarded object holds the possibility of another life.
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Shifting Perspectives:
Embracing the Unexpected
One of my more unconventional artistic influences comes from Lisa Simpson’s psychedelic visual journey in Season 4, Episode 13 of The Simpsons. The surreal distortion of familiar imagery, the unexpected relationships between objects, and the playful disruption of reality have stayed with me as an inspiration for exploring perception.
My work embraces this spirit of visual curiosity, drawing on surrealism, absurdity, and imaginative storytelling to challenge the familiar. By presenting ordinary materials in extraordinary ways, I invite viewers to reconsider what they see, question their assumptions, and discover beauty in unexpected places.
The Philosophy Behind the Art
Lizard Queen Conceptuals is more than an artistic identity. It is a philosophy rooted in curiosity, resourcefulness, and the belief that imagination can transform how we interact with the world.
Through my work, I hope to demonstrate that sustainability and creativity are not separate pursuits, but deeply interconnected practices. Art has the power to reshape our understanding of consumption, encourage more thoughtful relationships with materials, and inspire us to recognize possibilities where we once saw limitations.
I don’t just create art from discarded materials. I create new stories from things the world has stopped paying attention to.
See the potential. Reimagine.
