Meet Eloïse Leibnitz-Armstrong | Illustrator and Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eloïse Leibnitz-Armstrong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eloïse, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Please excuse me, my answer is definitely a bit long but I thought it might be better to provide more information vs less to you!

My entire path to this point has been dependent on risk-taking. A career in the arts in general is a risk- I think you’d be hard pressed to find an artist or full-time creative who chose to enter the industry because they wanted to become a quick millionaire or because they prioritized certainty of financial security above passion and expression. There’s that age-old question; Would you rather live to work or work to live? With art, the lines between the two blur since creativity and imagination is so often incorporated into every aspect of life. And for me, having an interest in so many facets of the creative world means that to explore each one requires risking consistency, security, and stability. On the flip-side, with each new risk taken while exploring a new direction, I’ve stood to gain so many new fulfilling experiences and skills.

That’s why I consider any artist to be bold to knowingly take on those risks for the sake of passion and expression. In a world where security is often found in a paycheck, artists find ways to survive and thrive while prioritizing passion in a winding path.

I was raised to have an ‘opportunist’ and ‘carpe diem’ mentality, in the sense that my family would pack us up and move each time a better situation or new adventure even glimmered in the distance. We moved to different states, countries, and even continents with that ideal in mind, and I adjusted to that nomadic risk-forward attitude that focused on hope and curiosity. I’m grateful for that being instilled in me because my own professional path developed by mirroring that mindset.

I started work as a professional freelance painter at 15 in San Francisco, while also studying art. At 16 I moved to France and later that year, in a moment spurred by the memory of a single workshop trapeze class I’d once enjoyed, I joined the French circus. I took to it quickly and began to consider dropping everything for a life as an acrobatic performer. Therein was presented a risky opportunity. This time I chose not to take the largest risk, and instead decided to split my time between the circus and finishing high school while focusing on my visual art.

At 18 the risk of injury in that form extreme performance art came to pass and I had an accident in my final circus performance that ended any potential to continue. Fortunately it aligned with a growing focus on art so I pivoted and ended up moving a continent away from my family to purse studying Animation and Fashion Design, neither of which I’d at that point had any exposure to.

At 20 I felt uncertain about my choice in majors and started missing expression through movement. Although I could no longer do contortion for the circus I could still dance, so I left college to attend the oldest Hip-Hop dance academy in Europe and pursue interest fully, while risking my bachelor’s degree and visually-artistic track.

At 21 I got my dance certification and decided that while I truly loved dancing I didn’t want to give up on art as a career so I went back to college and graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Illustration in the middle of the pandemic. In that time before graduating I also considered pushing forward with my freelance painting and so sought out my old mentor, internationally-acclaimed painter Adrienne Stein, to briefly study under in a work-study apprenticeship. Working with her created the opportunity to push my artistic technique further than it’d ever been and exposed me to a fully freelance-led lifestyle, the knowledge of which helped with my approach to a new career in illustration and design.

At 22 I moved to Switzerland proceeded to spend the months of quarantine focused on freelance work, creating independent illustrations to document and process the change in the world and reaching out to professionals in the publishing industry through the new virtual networking world. In a time when so many people were looking for jobs and general desperation for an income was high, I needed to find a more stable employment. Instead of taking a more easily accessible job outside of my field, I risked burning through savings and running out of time to hold out for a job that filled my passion. I relied on my freelance income, my family, and some contract work to hold me out through year of endless job applications, artistic side-ventures like a fabric pattern shop, a print business, and my paintings.

And at 23 After working a couple contract-based jobs and gaining design experience in new industries, I finally landed a full-time graphic design job for a Teddy Bear company. I relocated to NY where I currently work on my graphic design during the week and focus on my painting, cover design or other artistic interests in the weekends.

Each time I chose a different route, I risked losing what progress I’d made in the one I was seemingly leaving behind. Exploration risk-taking is not about abandoning a good situation or being flaky with fleeting interests, it’s about taking the opportunity to experience something new as a chance to learn more about yourself and grow your skillset. That way, if you decide to come back to any interest, it’s with a wider view, more diverse skills, and an excitement of knowing that you chose this path while fully understanding your options.
Loyalty to a venture or job while still exploring other interests are also absolutely not mutually exclusive, and not every risk taken has to include abandoning all comfort or security. I enjoy growing my freelance work and learning new artistic techniques while consistently working as a graphic designer at the Teddy Bear company. In fact, I have brought in new skills, like motion media, character design and book design, into my job after learning them externally. In that way I justify the risks.

Having moved 4 times in the past two years I feel like I’ve really adopted the nomadic lifestyle based on the ‘opportunist’ and carpe diem mentality, and taking risks no longer seems so scary, but simply exciting. They may not always turn out positively, like with the circus injury or the dance certification I decided not to use, but if I hadn’t taken those risks to explore, I wouldn’t have enjoyed living so many different lives, feeling enriched, and taking pieces and skills from each to create the artist I am today.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Everything I make is about stories. I love getting engrossed in a good novel and getting to experience an entire lifetime of the characters for as long as many days as it takes to get through the chapters. With illustrations you get setting, characters, context, action, emotion, and even often the actions happening of a scene in a single image. I find that just magical. If my goal is to experience everything, the only real limit is time. With illustrations, I get to visually experience and invent so many incredible experiences and lives. And since so many of my own works are based on adventures from my travels and my every day life, I’m left with sketchbooks that are a sort of scrapbook of my own dramatized epics with imaginative elements. Then I use those stylized illustrated interpretations of my memories as inspiration for new settings, colors, textures, and subjects of my client work for novels. So any given final illustration for a bigger project is likely the product of layering story over story over story, with influences from so many different cultures and personal memories.

I’m a big fan of surrealistic art, because I feel like it blends the beauty of the real world with the unlimited nature of imagination. I feel like that’s what’s most unique about my work – it combines my own experiences of real-life adventures and places to stories that could only exist in a person’s imagination. The goal is to take what I consider the coolest parts of the earth and just make them MORE.

One of the biggest challenges I faced up to this point was identifying my own personal style. I was originally classically trained in painting and so for the first five or so years of my career everything I made was in the mark-making style of renaissance paintings. That means my work from that time is very realistic in appearance with a huge emphasis on painting from live observation. Only after going back to college the second time to study illustration did I explore any real stylization and incorporation imaginative subjects. In a typical rejection of training, I then overcompensated and swung to a self-described lazy style of work that was very inconsistent in appearance. (Not to say that exploration of different styles is a bad thing by any means – I personally believe that consistently experimenting with new techniques and styles is what pushes the evolution of your personal style to bigger and better things). But it took a while to find ways marry the two approaches and find a way to appreciate the timeless and classy observational painting techniques of old masters with the fun or silly, colorful, imaginative, and looser styles of my favorite kinds of illustration. I’m still finding that balance, and still experimenting, but I’m no longer rejecting one or the other. I think in working towards that balance while every-incorporating new techniques and subjects I’m able to push the original storytelling goal of my surrealistic works even further.

Lesson learned – Learn the foundations and let yourself play! I think so often budding artists will get caught up in wanting their art to fit a specific style or aesthetic that any artistic approach that falls outside of those boundaries will be avoided. But removing those limitations is such an irreplaceably helpful way to grow!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For a week in New York especially if you’re staying in Brooklyn there are so many incredible things to do! Best places to eat would be Raku in the lower east side for great udon, Mominette for some good french food in Bushwick or Klom Klorm for thai.
Nook is my favorite coffeeshop as a great place to work in the day while surrounded by creatives, plants, and dogs, and in the evening they host fun little events like live music or trivia.
There’s a 70’s themed speakeasy in Manhattan called Joyface that is absolutely groovy. Also in manhattan is Twins Lounge that’s super fun for pool and great drinks, and a super sketchy and fun dive bar called Double Down Saloon for your grunge fix. In Brooklyn I’d suggest KCB as a nice, low-key brewer or 10 bells for a beautiful wine bar that feels like an oyster tavern

During the day there’s so much to do! Definitely check out the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, watch a broadway musical, and stop for a donut at the 24/7 hot-light Krispy Kreme location in times square. Then go for a bike ride in central park or a walk along the esplanade at Domino park to see the skyline, and watch a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse for drinks and food at your table while you watch. There’s lots of great shopping in SOHO and the little Italy restaurants are worth a stop as well. I’m just eating my way through New York so that’s the majority of my recommendations.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My parents, Dr. Ramie Leibnitz and Dr. John Armstrong, who have supported me through every unusual life plan and change of direction, and who taught me to value the arts, a diversified mind and my own fulfillment.

Adrienne Stein, my artistic mentor who showed me what it means to dedicate a life to art and see the beauty in everything.

Gretal Leibnitz, who supports me endlessly and helped me find fulfilling work through the pandemic.

Paul Runko at Scad, who helped me land my incredible job at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company.

Elianna Ayala, Juliana Sampaio-Pedroso and Matthew Green, my best friends who I followed to live with in New York and who continuously help me manage having far too many interests with far too little time while still finding times to relax.

And quite frankly, shoutout to Leonardo DaVinci who remains my constant source of inspiration as a renaissance man who pursued more careers than I could imagine juggling while staying true to his creative self throughout it all.

Website: www.EloiseLArt.com

Instagram: @EloiseLArt

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/eloiselart

Image Credits
“Daughter of Light” written by Garrett Curbow All other images are entirely my own