We were lucky to catch up with Alexandria Richbourg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alexandria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

During COVID-19, I was working from home for a Tech Company. I’ve always had a natural talent for drawing and there wasn’t much else to do during that time because of quarantine. After a while, my skills started to really improve. I began to find so much joy in art during a time when everything seemed so uncertain and it allowed me the space to dream again.

I started posting some of my work online and friends, family, and people on social media would ask for me to make portraits for them.

Fast forward to a year later, I started a new job at a small start-up and the world slowly began to function normally again. I quickly realized how unhappy I was in my role and wanted to find my joy again. Creating and being an artist was the happiest I’ve ever felt and I decided to take the risk and start my own business. I decided that if I was going to live this life, I would live it on my own terms, to the fullest, and continue to do what I love along the way.

Alexandria, 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?

I’m an Atlanta-based, self-taught Artist and I’ve been fortunate to practice my craft from the early years of High School to the present day. I discovered my love for portraiture and hyper-realistic art during my adolescence and quickly picked up pastels and charcoal. During my collegiate experience, I began to learn the foundations of painting with acrylics and oils.

I’m most inspired by influential people of color who came before me and use my style of realism to honor and capture the essence of those individuals. I’m extremely passionate and you can feel that when you look at my work.

The fact that I’ve continued to hold onto my dream and pursue my art is what I’m most proud of.

At this time, I offer original work and custom portraits and paintings.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is simply having a vision and literally watching it unfold and come to life. It’s never exactly the way you imagine but that’s the beauty of it as well. You never know what the journey will be and sometimes things don’t go as planned, but the end result is always more than what you expected.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Honestly, a resource that I wish I knew about early on would be others in your community! For some reason, I felt like this creative journey would be me working on ideas alone. The truth is that there is power in community. Not all of my friends work within the creative space but I’ve been able to cultivate relationships with co-workers and others that I meet at cool events. I have found common interests with those who I’ve worked with and we’ve collaborated together on projects. Simply listening to someone’s story and being inspired by them has helped me create work as well. It may seem hard to do, but if you ask questions and get involved with the people around you, you’ll start to create your own creative community along the way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alexandriarartistry.com/
• Instagram: @alexandriarartistry

Image Credits
JoTheJuiceGod (For the 2 Film photographs including me in a white shirt) Davincho (For the black and white photo of me drawing live)