Edith Lebeau interview - 2010

Name: Edith Lebeau
Place of birth: St-Hyacinthe, Canada

Black Cat aka Didi: At what point did you call yourself an artist? Was it after a specific artwork or course?
Edith Lebeau: I guess I started to call myself an artist a while after my BFA, I've always been hard on myself and had some kind of problem with the word "artist". I felt I had to be a good and serious one to be worthy of that title. Though I did not feel my work was great at that time, I felt that it was on the right path. But yeah, I guess I started to call myself an artist in 2007, when I started showing in galleries. But I've been drawing and painting since I was a little girl. I have a lot of great memories of my father and I drawing on the kitchen table on those giant sheets of paper.

B.C.: What artistic passions or obsessions do you have or see in your work?
E.L.: I've always drawn ladies. I was 5 years old and was drawing a particularly colorful Cindy Lauper. As a pre-teenager I was into creating fashion drawings, but the thing I enjoyed the most was doing the makeup with bright colors. Then, when I was a bit older, I was more obsessed with faces. In high School I was always drawing portraits, mostly woman and it never changed since. It might be more of a passion than an obsession, since obsession is often negative. The face is the thing I always start with when I paint. It's the center of my work and the reason I do what I do. I love painting portraits, especially female portraits. It's like when I was a pre-teen. I want to create lots of characters and put their makeup on and create them a story. I guess it's like a Barbie or a paperdoll thing…

B.C.: Which do you find exerts a stronger influence/impact on your subsequent work, success or failure?
E.L.: Both in some ways. The failure makes me work harder. Makes me want to create greater things. Of course if there are too many failures it just depresses me, so it's harder to paint during that time, but there is still this faith inside me that makes me believe that it will get better. The success gives me faith of course, so it helps me to create and when the failure comes, I remember that success. So it's pretty much a wheel of Success or Failure I paint. Failure makes me surpass myself and Success gives me faith.

B.C.: Use a theme or a character as a metaphor to describe your work…
E.L.: It would be like Nature as female. "Mother nature".

B.C.: According to a certain philosophy, the best things in life can't be told. The second best are what we try (but are unable) to talk about. The third best are what we end up talking about. Where does that put your art?
E.L.: I guess it's between the first and the second one. If it was about my life, not just llife in general. My art is one of the best things. Without it my sanity would be questionable. But if we refer to that philosophy question, I guess it would be the second best. A lot of my art comes from my instinct. Sometimes it comes from an image or a feeling that pops into my head before I go to sleep and I start to work on a painting with those blurry images of what I want it to be, and I add some symbols and I end up finding a theme and sometimes a meaning of what I'm doing. Sometimes I want to explain what I create but I just can't. In our days Art always has to be explained, Why we do what we do, What does it means, etc. So I try to explain it the best I can. I've never been a great speaker or writer, so expressing myself with words about my art or for anything ( Just ask my man, I sometimes end up just pointing at things so he could understand what I want… haha!) it's really hard for me. It does not come naturally.

B.C.: Where we can see your art in the future?
E.L.: Well in the near future you can see my work on this show called "Hunters" at Rothick Art Haus, Anaheim, CA, USA, on Februray 11th 2012. Which is this weekend. http://rothick.com/
Also I have a piece in a great show called "Femme Fatale" at Cella gallery, North Hollywood, CA, USA, on February 25th 2012. cellagallery.com
And on June 9th 2012, I'm a part of this show called "Wasted! The great American pastime" at WWA Gallery, in Culver City, CA, USA. http://wastedartshow.blogspot.com/
There's a lot of other shows TBA for this year and 2013.
I feel very blessed to be a part of those wonderful art shows and I really hope to be able to continue to show my works to the world for a very very long time.

B.C.: Thanks Edith for your time, I know about your busy schedule and I really appreciate your contribution to the xlegion project.

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