We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stacey Moncoeur. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stacey below.
Alright, Stacey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
My oldest project/work would be a painting I haven’t shared online yet and it’s like a personal item, my canvas. I’ve spent months with every detail based on dreams I’ve had and the picture gets put together slowly within each detail. Some work like this one makes me want to gatekeep it but at the same time I’ve told myself why should I hide this any longer. I poured myself into this canvas and it was kind of the basis of my routine of painting & drawing now. This specific piece is based on self evolution as time goes by and relearning new ways to get to where I needed to be. Ever since my hiatus, I’ve had way too many signs pointing me towards art so I took that as my motivation to start expressing myself through artwork from this piece alone. This project is still unnamed to this day, but will always be recognized as the piece of artwork that brought me out of my comfort zone.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I’ve grown up within the Haitian culture, where art is highly appreciated. The source of my love for art came from many Haitian artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat being one of my favorites. Let’s just say I’ve progressed in creating my own art style over the years through self expression and learning more about the concept of surrealism. Whether it be a quick sketch or an unfinished freestyle on a canvas that was never shared. The mentality I had was to just immediately paint what I am feeling in the moment or based on a vision that stood out to me the most. Ever since then, I’ve curated various styles but the most work I have shared was surrealistic expression. What I’m most proud of is what I’ve come up with and being amazed at myself just at the simple fact that I created something new and original. My main focus is to encourage others to do the same to help themselves find their art style and escape from themselves through self expression. Once inspired, you begin to inspire others and I love knowing that I helped the next person tell themselves to do something, anything if it means getting out of their own mind and seeing what you made from the heart. 
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Coming up in a different upbringing than most, I can honestly say that I’ve grown up hating my comfort zone. That comfort zone had a negative impact on my art with creative blocks, neglecting what’s important to me, and unlearning to stop making excuses based on fears. Unlearning how to come out of that comfortable place where it brought no benefits to my purpose and continuing my path of executing my art in various ways. Now the main quote that I follow today is “my discomforts are where I find the greatest teachings.” by Brianna Pastor, and I cherish this saying wholeheartedly as a way to never go back to my old ways where I didn’t have a positive influence.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My main motivation as of right now would be reflecting on the moments that pointed me to art and being grateful that those signs were presented to me in the past. Since grade school, I’ve been in art classes to working in art warehouses and it always baffled me how I didn’t see how these spaces I was in were a reminder of what I needed to be doing. I like to say God works in mysterious ways and I’m grateful to have seen the signs before and to give me a reason to continue my purpose. My resilience alone comes from my duty to reflect the times by expressing myself and to look back at my journey as a way to congratulate myself on how far I’ve come. All the while reminding myself that you are closer to where you need to be than just giving up from all the progress that was made and not to let yourself stop doing what you love no matter what. This is your power, and art is my power.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://strseed1.univer.se/?fbclid=PAAaaYnR5Oi7Qv6ZzA4ytuFCmRh9ECBDgA94VT7xWkE_4bSSrxalZD2Vw0OcQ
- Instagram: @_espervnciv
Image Credits
photographer: @kushaphotos