Leo Posillico, 79, passed away June 14th, 2024, was an artist born and raised on Long Island, New York. Following graduation from School of Visual Arts in New York City, Leo served as an Army Photography Advisor and Instructor in Vietnam on MP Advisory Team. With a move to the West Coast, he landed a position as Art Director in the Communications Department of a Los Angeles-based Life Insurance Company. At Pacific Life, Leo created and designed promotional and advertising materials, including a re-design of the corporate logo, earning an impressive number of commercial art awards. He continued as Illustrator and Designer for corporate and private companies, and with a partner, designed board games, packaging, and book cover art, eventually leading to a path of fine art painting. In the mid-1970s, he opened his Independent Studio in Los Angeles. While talking on the phone and doodling, created his signature figurative characters that are throughout most of his artwork. With quick and precise brush strokes to animate the basic human emotions in all of us, these expressive figures achieve their movement, to become Leo’s People. For 50 years, his characters have been in his Gallery themes, the Landscape series, Cityscapes and in more recent years, his enlarged People paintings. Working in oils, acrylic, mixed-media and dimensional constructions, all have had a story to tell, visual as well as verbal with his titles. Leo wanted art to be fun, especially with his Word Series. He had great wit and humor.Leo observed people, a constant awareness of behavior and emotions that he continually strove to express in his paintings and art. As a prominent contemporary artist, was represented nationally­ in the by Martin Lawrence Galleries and then internationally for 12 years in Japan, and in various American galleries. Leo’s artworks hang in public institutions and in the homes of numerous private collectors around the world. Leo participated in juried art shows and designed for text books, magazines, novels, album cover, self-published books, and various print collections and greeting card lines.