As we learn to speak, words naturally get tied to generic pictures. If I say the word “forest”, your brain produces a generic image of a forest.

When I moved to Costa Rica in 1998, my stock of images was entirely based off twenty-five years of living in France. They did not fit my new environment. It was the moment I started to look instead of just seeing.

It’s when what you see collides with the generic picture you have that it grabs your attention and provokes a feeling. You take a picture of a sunset because it is more beautiful than the generic image you have of a sunset. The “collision” is what fuels my work.

My eyes are now open to things I took for granted: everyday social interactions, routines, urban environments, behaviours. Daily life moves me and sparks the urge to capture moments of the ordinary. I find beauty in a building under construction, people caught in traffic, workers going about their day.

I want to share the deep tenderness I have for the everyday, that shared realm of time and space in which our lives unfold.

After a prior life as a translator, it was in 2020, during the first French lockdown, that Leti Stagno decided to commit full time to painting. 

In 2023, she exhibited for the first time at the 30th Édition of the Salon des Arts in the city of Chambourcy, France. 

During this event, she was approached by the Association des Peintres de Chatou, with whom she took part in a group exhibition in July of the same year. 

After moving to Costa Rica, in March 2025, she participated in the Art Fest Curridabat, Aleste, organized by the Galeria Matiz. 

In May, 2026, she was selected to be part of the 20th edition of Viva el Arte, in Plaza del Sol.