We recently connected with Margaret Larabel and have shared our conversation below.

Margaret, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?

I used to work in the fine art reproduction field, where I was digitizing and printing a lot of original artwork for painters and photographers, and that was extremely eye opening to work very closely with other creative professionals. The biggest takeaway from that job, in terms of an artistic career path, is that the majority of people out there doing this for a living know just as little or less than you do about the business. Whether it be about technical aspects of putting together a website, how to price prints, or more existential artistic questions- we really are all out here finding things out as we go along. Before that job I had a binary way of thinking which was, you either had it figured out or you didn’t. Those that did were the people selling and getting in galleries. And the people who didn’t needed to figure out how to get there. Well turns out, there is no “there”, you just have to start somewhere and keep forging the path with each step you take.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a fine art painter specializing in colorful nature images created in acrylic & oil. I have been painting and drawing since I was a kid and it was always something that came very naturally to me. Since I can remember, people were always wowed at how easily I could draw and I didn’t understand what they thought was so amazing about it because to me it was as intuitive as breathing. Depicting that creative vision, putting it down on canvas to share with the world is so important. The creative arts is a visualization of what it means to be human, to live a life, to have a thought or wonder and crystalize that thing and immortalize it. Original artwork is so valuable because it’s telling a story, and it has a life. Which I think will become even more valuable as our world continues towards everything being more automated and digital.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’ve experienced a lot of setbacks and rejection. I graduated art school right after the 2008 financial crisis, so I finished school into a horrible job market that never worked in my favor for landing something full time in a creative field. That feeling of failure was so strong that it led me to take some time away from making art. When I felt ready to pursue it again, I decided to take my creative side fully into making fine art as opposed to graphic design or commercial illustration which seemed more sensible at the time. However, submitting work to galleries was usually met with crickets or very brief responses with back handed comments on my work. Somehow, I kept going and reminded myself why I do this and it wasn’t until fairly recently that I began to show my work in galleries. I do this because I know my art speaks to certain people out there and its more about finding that audience and being able to continue using my vision to bring something special to my collectors and viewers.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being able to do this professionally is when people tell me how much they are moved by my work. I’ve had people tell me how emotional they became when viewing a certain collection, or they message me to tell me how happy they are to have an original in their home and how special it is to them. That is the biggest compliment to me. To be able to say I’ve created that sort of feeling in someone else’s life through artwork, is truly invaluable to both the collector and to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.margaretlarabel.com
• Instagram: mglarabel
• Other: tik tok :) @mglarabel