From baby blunt wraps and tiny torches to entire sesh table scenes, Levelheady has carved out a notable niche in the world of Cannabis miniature art. We sat down with the Denver-based artist, who has been putting out small resin replicas that are making big waves, to find out what’s so fun about finger-sized art.
What was your journey to working with resin as a medium?
Art has always been an escape for me, but I started working with resin in 2016. I was doing a ceramics project in college and wanted to incorporate mixed media – my art teacher recommended I try out this thing called ‘resin.’ I bought some, watched tutorials online and was like, ‘Woah. This is kind of cool. I want to do this.’ I suddenly was no longer interested in ceramics at all and actually dropped out of college during that time because I became so focused on working with resin.
Then how did you get into your niche of making miniatures?
I started focusing really hard on the scale model aspect in 2020. I had been serving tables and doing art on the side forever, and I would have a breakfast shift, come home and work on a project, then post whatever I did that day. I didn’t even think of it. I was just consistently sharing with the world, ‘Hey, this is what I’m working on. This is something I’m excited about.’ One of my pictures went viral and I think other people saw what I was doing and thought it was unique – so they would share it, and it just kept growing from there. Then the pandemic hit and I didn’t want to serve anymore, and thought maybe it was time to just focus on my art. I bought a website and started posting like crazy. That’s when companies started noticing me and being like, ‘Hey, this is cool. Would you make minis of our product?’ I had this moment where I was like, ‘Oh, I can do this!’ So that’s kind of how it all started.
Where do you draw inspiration from, and how does Cannabis play a role in your artistic process?
Almost everything I’ve done has had something to do with a small version of weed stuff. I’ve always been really intrigued by Cannabis. These days, I’m inspired by Japanese resin techniques because they’re a lot more in-depth than the ones here. In the U.S., a resin pour is just one thing in a mold – but in Japanese culture, they’ll be inspired by all these little details. It’s about as much detail as you can put into one little space. It’s almost gaudy. And I was like, ‘I like that. I want to do that, but I want it to be inspired by my own stuff.’
What would you say is fun about you and your art?
I just love fun! I genuinely believe magic is real and want to bring a little bit of that feeling to people through my art. I want them to feel transported, and I think that’s the really fun thing about my minis – people can look at them and be like, ‘Oh my god, this is my smoke table at home!’ There’s also the connection we all have to miniatures from our inner child. It brings you back to being like, ‘This is so small, I would have played with this when I was a kid. But I like it as an adult because it’s my torch?’ It’s kind of a paradox … it’s silly and there’s no reason for it, other than to look at it and smile or think or show someone. Even if your only response is to laugh at my art, that makes me happy because I brought joy out of someone by doing something that I enjoyed.
