"Luckily I'm one of those people to use both their left and right-side of their brain," he said.

"Most artists are right-brained people, and most administrators or managers are left brained people, I think throughout my life I've used both sides quite evenly.

"I think I've been very lucky because I've never been stuck in any one genre."

Leong didn't become an artist until his early 40s, but since getting into the field he has shaped and been shaped by his artistic ventures.

An experience that sprung to Leong's mind was a time where he worked with women refugees from Nigeria in Hobart.

"I designed a project which got them [the refugees] using a sewing machine," he said.

"On the first day I had some of the women in tears because they sewed the seam and the seam fell apart because they didn't know how to thread a needle on the sewing machine.

"I was so shocked, some of these women had come from villages where they had never seen a sewing machine in their lives.

"Because I was inexperienced I didn't even think about that so you're very humbled when you are confronted with those situations."

However, Leong said his favourite project was working with miners at the Rosemary Mines in the Northern Territory in 2007.

"I got them to express visually what they felt about working in that mine and it was an amazing project," he said.

"To get some huge, burly miners to come in and learn how to draw and to draw things was a fantastic experience and very humbling.

"Initially there was some resistance especially among some of the more masculine miners, but in the end they were all so proud of their drawings."

More recently he served as artistic director and general manager at Theatre North before retiring in December 2018.

There he was key in establishing many new developments for the company, foremost of which was the Friends of Theatre North.

"I want to do lots of different things in a short amount of time," Leong said.

"A lot of people disapprove but if you don't strike while the iron is hot you can lose everything.

"It's [Friends of Theatre North] been a blessing because for an organisation like this, friends really help put you in front of the community."

Though he may be officially retired, Leong said his work as an artist was far from over.

"One learns so much as one works and I know it's not the end of learning for me and I look forward to learning a lot more," he said.

"If you keep your mind free from prejudice as much as you can you absorb a lot more than if you were to keep your mind closed and I hope to continue to do that."