Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Natouri Roye. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Natouri thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Honestly, it wasn’t until recently that I decided to pursue art professionally. I’ve been creating art whether it’s photography, painting, or using other mediums since I was in high school. But for me art was more of an escape or a hobby. I didn’t want to make money pieces. Rather, I gave everything away as presents. If someone came to me and said oh I like that, I would say you can have it. I even had people commission pieces from me. I would never charge. Just purchase the materials and I would create the piece. I never truly knew my worth.

I didn’t want monetizing my art to take my joy away. My parents would tell me how amazing I was. My uncle would tell me that what I had was a gift. It wasn’t until recently that the real reason why was because I was fearful of putting myself out there. I was fearful of rejection. But your purpose lives on the other side of fear. My husband told me that my purpose was to bring happiness in people’s life through my art.

I started volunteering with my cousin as my cousins assistant at Art Basel in Miami. One, because I loved being around art, but two to learn the business. I also volunteered with Snap! gallery in Orlando. two years ago I decided to take the leap of faith. A coworker of mine told me about a local store called House on Lang, that he knew was accepting art. I went to the owner and she requested 3 of my paintings and 3 of my photography images to be placed around her store. I started Natouri Roye LLC. Last year I entered one of my photography pieces in an artist call at Snap Gallery in Orlando. I was shocked when it was chosen to be placed in the gallery. The owner of the gallery told me we didn’t chose you because we know you. We chose you because your piece was good. That felt amazing. I’m currently working towards having my first gallery show for 2024 and launching my gallery website, natouriroye.com. On my website you will find upcoming events, all my paintings that I have for sale as well as my photography images. On my website you can purchase prints of my art on canvas, on a t-shirt, mug, or cellphone case. You can order originals straight through me. There is also a space where you can commission a piece as well.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a first generation American born in the Bronx, New York. My family is from Jamaica. We moved to Orlando, FL when I was a child. I am a mother of two beautiful children. I first started wanting to be a fashion designer. I used to watch my mom sew our clothes and hers growing up. She made all of our Easter dresses, Halloween costumes and even my prom dress, which I designed. I received a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design and Merchandising, While taking art classes for that degree I started venturing off doing photography, painting, using conte crayon and pastel chalk. . In my twenties I went to the MOMA museum in New York and fell in love with Dali and Georgia O’Keefe. I loved how she blew up images of flowers on a canvas. That is what I started doing. In the beginning I only used, conte crayon, pastel chalk, and watercolor pencils. I would say about 6 years ago I taught myself how to paint. I’m constantly challenging myself with different techniques, whether it’s painting with knives, or using mixed media.

I’ve worked on several commissioned pieces. My clients would just ask me to paint something. I would ask them questions like what’s their favorite flower and favorite colors. One of my clients requested a contemporary piece. That was a challenge for me. He gave me examples of pieces he liked, he told me the colors he liked and trusted me to create. When I dropped off the piece he was so excited. I was happy. Because one I had a happy client, 2 I did something out of my comfort zone and it turned out amazing.

I also love photography. I do landscape and city photography. Like painting, photography started out as a hobby. I just wanted to travel and take pictures of different places I’ve been to. There is so much beauty in this world, but no one stops to pay attention to it. We only focus on the ugly. My mom would say to me I don’t understand we are at the same place but somehow you capture things that no one sees. You see things differently. I want to share that beauty in the world. That is my mission.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I’m currently reading “Who Not How”, By Dan Sullivan. In the book it tells you to ask your self Who can help you get to where you need and want to be, not How can you get there. Sometimes the “Who” can be someone that you hire to do something that you don’t know how to do or want to do, or that “Who” can be someone in your circle that gives you the lightbulb idea.

That resonated with me because I often struggle with the minute details of the business side of things. I just want to create. I found a Who that could navigate and assist me with the little details that needs to be done to start a business. I also had plenty of “Who’s” along the way that pushed, believed in me, and guided me.

If there is something you don’t like doing or don’t know how to do find your self a “Who” to take care of it for you.

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.

Being a creative is being vulnerable and is done out of passion. You are actually letting someone take a view of your soul, inner thoughts, fears, traumas, or life story. It takes great resilience and courage to sell your work as a creative and make it into a career. You are forever selling a piece of you. We take each piece personally. So if someone says you work is ugly. You feel like they are calling you ugly. We are very critical of ourselves and of our work.

Also it’s a thing of passion. Many of the supplies to create something is very pricey. The cost of paint, canvas, brushes, finishing material are not cheap. It’s also hard for us to put a price on things. But if you thing about the cost of goods, the cost of our time, the commission that gets taken out when you see a piece for like $5000. The whole $5000 is not going into the artist pockets. The artist may walk away with $1000 or less just depending.

Contact Info:

• Website: natouriroye.com
• Instagram: natouriroyellc
• Linkedin: Natouri Roye

Image Credits
Images by Natouri Roye. Image with me taking photo is by Andrew Simpson