Artist Statement

I work primarily in charcoal because it demands honesty. Every mark is committed, every smudge a decision.

I am of Dutch and Indonesian heritage, and my pen name, Delayo, is the Dutch phonetic pronunciation of my family name, deLeeuw. It is a small act of reclamation — tying my cultural inheritance directly to the work I make. Identity, ancestry, and the marks we carry on our faces have always been present in my drawings, whether I intended them to be or not.

I am drawn to darkness, not as an end, but as a place where form reveals itself. Charcoal begins in shadow and you pull the light out of it. That process feels true to something larger: the idea that clarity emerges not despite difficulty, but through it.

— Jason deLeeuw / Delayo, Aurora, CO
 ·  d3layo.com  ·  delayofx@gmail.com  ·  @d3layo

Education

The Art Institute of Colorado, Denver, CO 2010

Selected Works

Mother Monster — Charcoal 2026

Eyes of the Eradicator — Charcoal & Pastel 2026

Collections

Works held in private collections, United States

Film & Production

You Wake to Find Yourself Alone in the Woods SFX Lead 2025

Reliquary: Confessions SFX Lead 2024

Commissions

Available for original commissions in charcoal, illustration, and SFX sculpture. Inquiries via d3layo.com/workwithme

CV current as of 2026. Full portfolio at d3layo.com