We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Antonella Farah Louis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Antonella thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.

Antonella Art Shop was born in the midst of the pandemic.
I have always been inclined to design and make clothes for dolls, with the scraps of cloth that my grandmother left from her seams, I had a sketchbook and a poetry book.

I was born in a house where art, music and fashion were as important as food, my mother, may she rest in peace, was a writer, she was an Arab who, as she herself said, was capable of setting a river on fire, she was a cultural manager and a An avant-garde woman, she was always surrounded by poets, composers, musicians, painters, who visited us and became part of the family. When all the moms wore heels and stockings, she wore jeans, backpacks and sneakers, she was different, as I consider myself. That is why I learned to dance almost before I could walk and I had the privilege of being taken to the cradle to the point of classic vallenatos sung with guitar and the voice of the composers themselves.

My mother has always instilled in me a love of reading, reading the tales of the Arabian Nights or the stories of the ingenious nobleman Don Quixote de la Mancha was for a long time one of the plans that we enjoyed the most.

As a good first-born of an Arab family, I had the privilege of learning all the trades: cooking, sewing, decorating… and of course, always being active and at the service of others.

In November 2019, as something premonitory, I started painting the walls of my house and adding color to it, I started with turquoise (my favorite). The following month I visited the Art Basel fair in Miami for the first time as part of an Experience Tour of Creative Connections. I hope to be able to tell you about this another time, that as they themselves say, “by living you learn and a connection can change your life.” I changed it and learned. There I met Paula Sarmiento, artist of the Obra de Arte Soy Yo, with whom we connected immediately, when I entered her workshop under the complicit gaze of my eldest son I fell in love, and I will not forget that my son looks at me and tells me: mom this is what you dream of

At that time I was consulting on nautical issues, and art continued to haunt me, I had little time for travel and work issues. It was January 2020 when I accompanied my children to a painting class, my mother saw what I also painted and told me: she leaves the paper and looks for a canvas.

She immediately paired canvas with an old jean, and so it was, I bought fabric paints and started painting my first jean. It was so beautiful that my friends were craving and the orders came.

The time came when they locked us up and no one wore jeans to be at home anymore, and that was when they decided to cut them, or as they say popularly, “mocharlos” hence the term used for “mochos” jean shorts. As a result of the mochos, they got more orders and the need to have an apron to paint, that’s why I made my first apron, with the boots of the jeans that I cut, since I didn’t have a machine, but I did have sewing bases, I sewed them. a hand

In a pandemic, the favorite plan of many was to cook, and that was how they asked me for jean and hand-painted aprons. I still had scraps of jeans left and the 2020 garment “the face mask” emerged, ugly, uncomfortable, but life-saving, and since I have never liked the traditional, I decided that my face mask would be different, full of color and very similar to me. And they received the orders for custom plugs again.

I became “daring”, I dared to use color, experiment with the unknown and let myself be carried away by a dream that I had always wanted to materialize, to do different things, to make art without training other than the desire and a lot of emotion…

Antonella, 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?

Antonella Art Shop was born in the midst of the pandemic.
I have been always in love with designing and making clothes, during my childhood it was my passion sewing dresses for my dolls, I had a notebook of drawings and another of poetry.

I was born in a house where art, music and fashion, my mother was a writer, she was an Arab who, as she called herself, was capable of setting a river on fire, she dedicated her whole life to promote culture, she was always surrounded by poets, composers, musicians, painters, became part of our family. When all the moms wore heels, she wore jeans, backpacks and sneakers, she was different, as I consider myself. That is why I learned to dance almost before I could walk.
My mother biggest inheritance is the love for books, reading the tales of the Arabian Nights or the story of Don Quijote de la Mancha was my favorite time that we enjoyed the most.

As a first-born of an Arab family, I had the privilege of learning cooking, sewing, decorating… and of course, always be ready to care for others.

On November 2019, I started painting the walls of my house and adding color to it, I started with turquoise (my favorite). The following month I visited the Art Basel fair in Miami as part of an Experience Tour of Conexiones Creativas. It changed me and I learned. There I met Paula Sarmiento, artist of the Obra de Arte Soy Yo, with whom we made an immediate connection, when I entered her workshop with my eldest son, I fell in love, and I will not forget that my son told me: mom this is what you dream of.

I use to work on the devolpment of nautical projects, and art continued to haunt me, I had little time for travel and work issues. It was January 2020 when I accompanied my children to a painting class, my mother saw what I painting and told me: stop the draft and go for a real result I started my first canva.

I immediately connected canvas with an old jean, and that’s it, I bought fabric paints and started painting my first jean. It turned out so nice that my friends started ordering.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I would definitely have studied the science of color, I am an economist and I worked for more than 20 years in the promotion of the nautical industry in my country. I do not regret what I achieved but, if I could take the time back I see that I was not accomplishing my dream, because my passion is art. I am convinced that I was born to create unique pieces.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

I would definitely have studied the science of color, I am an economist and I worked for more than 20 years in the promotion of the nautical industry in my country. I do not regret what I achieved but, if I could take the time back I see that I was not accomplishing my dream, because my passion is art. I am convinced that I was born to create unique pieces.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @antonellaartshop
• Facebook: Antonella Art Shop
• Linkedin: Antonella Farah Louis
• Twitter: @antonellafarahl

Image Credits
@tatianaolanomakeup Makeup Artist Cartagena @zuluaga_producciones Photographer @luisarangel content creator and editor