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- Fantasy for me is survival.
It's not just pleasure.
It's,
essential.
It has been, I think for my whole life.
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(object rattling)
I am Naudline Pierre.
I am an artist.
I make paintings, sculpture, works on paper
that explore an alternate universe with celestial beings
and other worldly creatures, and a main character
or protagonist who is growing
and sort of shares a likeness to me, but isn't me.
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I was able to hang on to this sense
of fantasy from a young age due to necessity.
I was born into a family
that had really strong religious beliefs.
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I had a ton of fear as a kid.
I think there was a fear of not being righteous enough
to make it to the next spot
and that I would get left behind here in the world
that didn't quite work out in the failed experiment.
And here I am, almost 35 and still here. (laughs)
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Thinking about flying and burning and destroying
and creating and loving and hating and raging.
Like I can just do all of that in the studio
and I can do that through the stories
that these characters are allowing me to tell.
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Sometimes I come into the studio and nothing's happening,
and I have to
sit and stare and wait for these characters
to allow me in,
and these characters give me the okay.
A lot of the time I feel myself asking them
to make themselves known to me.
Who are they?
I don't exactly know, and I like
to kind of keep the mystery there.
(ambient music)
I have these characters
that are just like a head connected to wings.
And then I have characters that have arms
and legs and wings.
And then I have guardians,
which are really, really tall beings.
And then I have the central figure who is more human
and doesn't have the appearance
of these celestial beings,
but is learning how to harness her own powers
to sort of fly on her own.
I think "I, A Terror Loosed Upon Your Heels"
was a really pivotal work for me
because it was one of the first works
where the central figure is leading a charge in motion.
She's riding a chariot of fire,
being pulled by celestial beings.
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For me, that work is very powerful
because she's holding herself up surrounded
by these other supportive characters
and it's kind of like, yeah, "I'm a terror
and I'm coming after you."
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I think I look for places where I can feel that thing
that you can't really express
with words that you feel in your heart.
One of my favorite places in the city,
I would have to say would be the cloisters.
It just feels really good to be in a place
where I feel a lot of inspiration.
It transports me to another time.
I think what attracts me to that time period is the fact
that these are very much European males
and they probably weren't thinking about someone like me
when they were making the work.
That I get to take whatever I want from history
and reframe it all to include what I wanna see.
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At an early age I just was always thinking
about things unseen and fantastical imagery and beasts
and prophecies and the end of the world.
I think this idea of celestial beings,
stars, flames, serpents,
it connects to a sort of unseen world
and I grew up with a lot of that kind of language.
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Growing up, it was just understood that
this wasn't my final home, that there was another one
that was being built for me somewhere else,
and if I just hung on long enough,
I'd make it to that place.
And so being able to make another place
where I call the shots, it's a nice feeling.
(traffic sounding) (horn blowing)
Now that I'm an adult, I can kind of understand
how and why I am who I am.
I embody different aspects of myself, different aspects
of these creatures that I'm painting.
It's about embracing my own multiplicity
and drawing power from change.
I am learning from the characters who are allowing me
to show them as they change, as they grow
they are many in one.
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