Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christopher La Fleur. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Christopher, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
As an artist, it’s difficult to create work that isn’t meaningful. Creatives have a somewhat paradoxical relationship with their work–the gift and curse of vulnerability.
On the one hand, we have this amazing opportunity to be vulnerable. Many people never have that option in their career. We’re innately driven to create work which reflects our own story, the world around us, social changes and political ones. Work which is the most authentic to us often feels the most authentic to audiences. I find when I create in a profit-motivated way, the result feels stifled and constrained. When I’m working on a project which is solely motivated by profit, it’s almost like I freeze up during the creative process.
On the other hand, we’re forced into the discomfort and nakedness of vulnerability. We’re required to put our hearts and talent before audiences. Many artists I meet, even myself sometimes, are unprepared for this. The words of critics and naysayers can fill our heads and make us doubt our ability.
Worse still, the art world is full of gatekeepers and the word no. I’ve sent hundreds of emails in my career, putting my best work out there only to receive a tepid response from gallery owners and those in the media. Sometimes, there’s no reply at all. After hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars invested into our artmaking practices, work may not sell. It may not receive attention at all.
It’s important to remember that meaningful work is never a waste of time. If you only reach one person with your work, even if it’s just yourself, the work is a success. Reframing our work and why we do it is essential. I often remind myself my self worth is not defined by the sale, or lack of sales, of my work.
Christopher, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
In 2018, I founded my fine art and cultural event-planning business. I specialize in large-scale, custom installations for homes and businesses. In the beginning, I made artwork in my living room. I didn’t have any furniture, I rarely had food, but I had determination. Five years into this career, I’m an internationally collected visual fine artist with more than 800 clients between my two businesses.
In 2023, I received my first national commercial partnership and my work was chosen to be featured on the Jones Soda Co. 2023 Pride collection of bottles. The bottles appeared on thousands of retail store shelves nationwide. It’s one of the proudest moments of my career.
What I offer my clients are original visions which can never be duplicated. I developed an unusual versatility and ability to work across visual styles. If every project is unique, visual style should be a tool to advance that narrative, not limit it. In 2021 I launched my line of merchandise and now have more than 150 products bearing my original fine art.
I’m also an LGBTQ+ artist, and this is very important when contextualizing my career. I grew up painting and making art–not simply because I was a creative child, but because I was bullied relentlessly. I grew up in an extremely conservative rural city. People said terrible things about me. People threw things at me. I was beaten up and harassed often. Joining art clubs and taking extra art classes in school kept me somewhat insulated from the bullies. I always had a safe place to express myself so long as I had an art teacher or classroom to escape to.
My father was pivotal in pushing me into the arts, and not for the reason you’d expect. As my high school graduation approached, my father was very adamant that I stay at home and go to school for something practical. In retrospect, he only wanted what he thought was best for me. I wanted nothing more than to escape that small town. I didn’t want to stay home. I was tired of being pushed into a life I didn’t want whilst suffering through the life I had.
I moved to the city almost as soon as I’d graduated. Ironically, I did end up going to business school. What I learned about marketing and sales would become extremely useful down the road. Many artists have an abundance of talent and no real world experience with marketing themselves or their work. A series of corporate marketing, sales jobs and long hours slowly destroyed my life and morale. I’d never made more money than I did then, but I’d come to believe I had no real purpose or reason to live. I wanted to die.
After falling into drug abuse and overdosing on fentanyl-laced cocaine, I came out the other side knowing that I’d repressed myself for too long. Creatives cannot deny themselves the opportunity to express. One way or another, it comes out. Perhaps my proudest moment of all was giving myself a chance. Yes, this is a risky and uncertain path, but it’s the only one that ever mattered to me. I was born to be this person, and I am unable to be anyone else. It’s my purpose.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
First, I don’t believe there are non-creatives.
Human beings are a creative species, although I don’t believe this quality is unique to us. Creativity is an inherent survival mechanism and biological imperative. Our ability to imagine outcomes in our mind, to play out multiple scenarios and propose solutions to problems with simple creative thinking, has taken us to the Moon and back. It has allowed us to imagine alternatives to repressive systems and outdated paradigms. Creativity will cure cancer. Creativity will inspire our journey to the stars and our journey to the realm of science fiction and fantasy. The books we read, clothes we wear, films we watch–all were creative endeavors.
If all human beings are creative, then what is it which stifles creativity in the vast majority of people? I believe it’s a lack of curiosity. All people want better for themselves and their families. We want security, safety and a place to call home. We want to build lives and grow. Unfortunately, the systems in which we live our daily lives encourage us to do things in a certain way. We’re trained to specialize in something, to accept a safe career even if it isn’t the career we want. We’re told to suck it up and deny ourselves of the very things which make us the most unique and capable versions of ourselves.
In the context of this system, we lose our childlike wonder and the ability to really see, and experience, the world around us. We forget to try new things, learn new skills and acquire new knowledge–especially if they aren’t related to what we’re currently doing. It’s this critical lack of curiosity which holds so many people back. If everyone embraced their creative inner child, our world would look very differently than it does now.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Although I went to business school and had a successful career in marketing and sales, I had to unlearn many things. First, that underselling myself was seriously hindering my ability to make money and build real value around my work.
Second, I spent the first two years of my career taking on clients I couldn’t stand and commissions that really became miserable, masochistic exercises in self-loathing. I felt myself sliding backwards into a somewhat joyless creative practice. As an artist and a business owner, creatives need to remember their power–we can fire problematic clients, refuse projects, set our own prices and determine the trajectories of our own careers. Too many artists lack perspective on their own work; the consequence is undervaluing what we do whilst forgetting who we are and why we started in the first place.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.christopherlafleurarts.com
- Instagram: @christopher.lafleur.arts
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-la-fleur-188a5227a/
Image Credits
All images by Christopher La Fleur