Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabrielle Lewis.

Hi Gabrielle, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.

Creativity was baked into my bones; I’m not sure if there was any other way it could have happened. It is an unmeasurable source of entertainment. Growing up abroad, creativity with drawing, Legos, etc. was not just essential, it was dire. When you grow up in a foreign world, creating a sense of stability (especially through creativity) is a whole sort of magic. I grew up in Africa, with Bible translator parents, and spent my wee years abroad until I was 12. In that time, I learned how to draw and use pen & inks to capture the world around me, and also, to translate my own brain onto paper. I would take community art classes when we went state-side, and when I finally entered the Texas public school system, an art class was always one of my electives. Cue when it was time to go to college, and I found myself pursuing and completing two Bachelors of Art. From there, every day has been it’s own undulation of creativity– from illustrating to branding to painting murals to animating to videography to creative direction.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

No road is smooth. In any case, a smooth road sounds like a bland story. Not to say that you need knots in the cord to have an interesting story/interesting life; it’s just, when everything is too smooth–when there is no true passion that births from feeling the cost–when there is no triumph from resistance– when there is no breath of fresh air from the failures and errors–is there even a real victory? I suppose that is a lot like bearing the question: does evil need to exist to have the ability to recognize good? Does one need to experience hardship to appreciate the richness of the successes. I would argue that the answer is no. But also, just like salt brings out the flavor of a great many delicious things, the roughness along the way creates character, experience, and wisdom. I also don’t believe there is an “I made it” moment; I think all stories as being written until they’re done, and it’s our jobs, especially as creatives, to interpret and celebrate that story in all its roughness and smoothness. Any struggles specific to me? Oh, you know, the classic: no one wants to pay me for my work, I can’t pay bills with experience, scrapping by each month to pursue my dream, settling for less, doing work I don’t want to do– all the classics (in my own privileged way). I am so grateful for everything I have learned along the way, and all the things I continue to learn. I hope my mind and heart are always open.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I would call myself an illustrator, my artistic style is illustrated realism. I am most known for my murals, in Bozeman, Montana and Renton, Washington (as well as some in Big Sky, Corvallis, and now, Coeur d’Alene). I oscillate between being a creative director with my work day, and then “creative outletting” through commissioned pieces, paintings, and murals. I absolutely adore being creative; it’s such a colorful way to experience the world. I am an illustrator, painter, muralist, graphic designer, creative director, and so much more; that is the very nature of being a Creative; there are about as many boundaries as there are semicolons in this sentence. I’d always like to be known for my “next piece.” I was told a lot in college that I had a very distinctive way to illustrating and painting, which I took a lot of pride in. I struggle with always feeling like I’m not doing enough with the skills that I have been given and the ones that I’ve developed along the way, but perhaps that is the nature of being a creative. I paint a lot of animals and nature, using my Bachelor of Arts in filmmaking to aid with composition and layout. I think I am most well-known for my use of color and personification of animals. I would describe my illustrations and paintings as whimsical and light.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?

Growing up, I was a bit of an introverted, nerdy little tom-boy. I have an older brother who influenced a lot of my interests growing up, from Star Wars to Legos to drawing to playing cowboy; everything we did had a twinge of creative flair. We would run through the Arizona shrubs around my grandparent’s house, with our newly purchased cowboys hats from months of saving up allowances, acting out every Western we had just watched. We would spend hours/days/years building Lego cities from a tub of rogue bricks and collecting every feasible Star Wars set we could get our hands on. My family encouraged my creation of a cartoon strip I started drawing with personified snakes called Snake Tales, which I started drawing because my grandpa always drew us train comics and I wanted to do the same thing (in my own way). My life was doused in creative outlet, how could I have turned out any other way?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brelseillustration.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brelseillustration