Texas artist paints with her breasts in remembrance of battle with breast cancer

Darlene Leiker certainly has a way with first impressions. The Collin County artist draws on her experiences to produce a one-of-a-kind piece of art. Nobody would ever guess after seeing her paintings how exactly she does it. "It catches your breath a little bit," said a friend and owner of one of Darlene's pieces. She calls it Bouxbart and it is quite literally impressionistic art inspired by the journeys in her life and beautiful things in nature. Darlene uses non-toxic acrylic to paint with her breasts. "When I see those paintings I have a remembrance of the trip that we took," said Bob Leiker, her husband of 35 years. And not every trip has been a fun trip. Darlene's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. She had her own scare soon after that. Both had mastectomies or surgeries to remove parts of the breast. "I gotta [sic] use them while I got 'em," Darlene laughed. "Mine was a little lump and mine was benign, but [my mother's] was cancer," she said. It all started as a tease when Darlene wanted to 'titillate' her husband who was working abroad. "What started out as a tease for [Bob] in 2012 turned into something more," read an excerpt from the Bouxbart website. Using her breasts to paint is a technique she's quietly perfected over 10 years. Not even her husband Bob has seen how the paintings are done. She uses a series of squeezes, and presses, and canvas rotations using only vibrant colors. FULL STORY: https://www.wfaa.com/article/features...