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(ambient music)

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- Fantasy for me is survival.

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It's not just pleasure.

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It's,

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essential.

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It has been, I think for my whole life.

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(ambient music)

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(object rattling)

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I am Naudline Pierre.

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I am an artist.

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I make paintings,
sculpture, works on paper

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that explore an alternate
universe with celestial beings

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and other worldly creatures,
and a main character

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or protagonist who is growing

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and sort of shares a
likeness to me, but isn't me.

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(ambient piano music)

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I was able to hang on to this sense

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of fantasy from a young
age due to necessity.

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I was born into a family

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that had really strong religious beliefs.

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(ambient piano music)

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I had a ton of fear as a kid.

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I think there was a fear of
not being righteous enough

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to make it to the next spot

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and that I would get left
behind here in the world

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that didn't quite work out
in the failed experiment.

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And here I am, almost 35
and still here. (laughs)

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(ambient and string music)

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Thinking about flying and
burning and destroying

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and creating and loving
and hating and raging.

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Like I can just do all
of that in the studio

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and I can do that through the stories

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that these characters
are allowing me to tell.

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(ambient music)

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Sometimes I come into the
studio and nothing's happening,

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and I have to

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sit and stare and wait
for these characters

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to allow me in,

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and these characters give me the okay.

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A lot of the time I
feel myself asking them

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to make themselves known to me.

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Who are they?

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I don't exactly know, and I like

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to kind of keep the mystery there.

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(ambient music)

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I have these characters

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that are just like a
head connected to wings.

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And then I have characters that have arms

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and legs and wings.

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And then I have guardians,

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which are really, really tall beings.

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And then I have the central
figure who is more human

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and doesn't have the appearance

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of these celestial beings,

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but is learning how to
harness her own powers

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to sort of fly on her own.

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I think "I, A Terror
Loosed Upon Your Heels"

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was a really pivotal work for me

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because it was one of the first works

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where the central figure is
leading a charge in motion.

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She's riding a chariot of fire,

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being pulled by celestial beings.

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(ambient music)

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For me, that work is very powerful

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because she's holding
herself up surrounded

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by these other supportive characters

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and it's kind of like, yeah, "I'm a terror

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and I'm coming after you."

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(ambient music)

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I think I look for places
where I can feel that thing

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that you can't really express

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with words that you feel in your heart.

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One of my favorite places in the city,

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I would have to say
would be the cloisters.

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It just feels really good to be in a place

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where I feel a lot of inspiration.

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It transports me to another time.

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I think what attracts me to
that time period is the fact

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that these are very much European males

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and they probably weren't
thinking about someone like me

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when they were making the work.

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That I get to take whatever
I want from history

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and reframe it all to
include what I wanna see.

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(ambient music)

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At an early age I just was always thinking

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about things unseen and
fantastical imagery and beasts

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and prophecies and the end of the world.

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I think this idea of celestial beings,

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stars, flames, serpents,

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it connects to a sort of unseen world

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and I grew up with a lot
of that kind of language.

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(ambient music)

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Growing up, it was just understood that

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this wasn't my final home,
that there was another one

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that was being built
for me somewhere else,

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and if I just hung on long enough,

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I'd make it to that place.

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And so being able to make another place

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where I call the shots,
it's a nice feeling.

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(traffic sounding)
(horn blowing)

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Now that I'm an adult,
I can kind of understand

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how and why I am who I am.

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I embody different aspects
of myself, different aspects

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of these creatures that I'm painting.

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It's about embracing my own multiplicity

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and drawing power from change.

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I am learning from the
characters who are allowing me

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to show them as they change, as they grow

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they are many in one.

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(synth music)