We recently connected with Arienne Lepretre and have shared our conversation below.
Arienne , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I knew that I wanted to be an artist when I was 10. We had just moved from San Francisco to Beirut(prewar) when my mother enrolled me into oil painting classes. Throughout a nomadic childhood moving from country-to-country Art was my most reliable and trusted friend. Visits to my father’s busy architectural practice also introduced me to drawing, and design. There was always an array of pencils, paper and various drawing implements, which to me was like a candy store. The draftsmen concentrated at their desks producing beautiful hand drawn Blueprints was magic.
I became more aware of the formalistic aspects of art when I got formal training. Calling myself an “artist” was not a clear path when I was coming up, there were other expectations of woman, and that was something I had to “unlearn”. Later on, when I attended graduate school at SMU in Dallas, it added a deeper dimension and an historical perspective to my work.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The main thing is to get to know yourself as an artist, be true to your own voice. Sometimes that takes a long time, sometimes you may be lucky and find it early on.
Submissions to galleries most always come with rejections, but it is important to recognize that as part of the journey, not take it personally but use it to grow from, even though it is hard. Nobody likes rejection. It takes perseverance.
Contact Info:
- Website: ariennelepretre.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ariennelepretre/