Artist Interview: OrelDesigns- Be the light

1.Tell us about yourself.   My name is Luz which means "light" in Spanish. I am from the Dominican Republic but came to United States in 1997 to live in Miami, Florida with my 2 year old boy. I met my husband right before hurracaine Katrina and got married two years later in 2007. We moved to Lafayette, Lousiana, but the transition was really hard for me and my husband who also loves Florida decided it was time to move back there. We moved, stayed there for 2 years (2009 - 2011) but two months ago we had to move back to Lafayette, because of my husband's job. Because I have not found a job, I decided to turn my passion to create jewelry into my business, and to use my name as my concept. "Be the light" is what every woman has to be.

2. Were you always an artist or did you discover your creative path later in life?
My family has a lot of artistic people, photographers, architects, and publicists, but I never was too much into art, but it was in my blood I guess....

Eight years ago in one of my trips to my beautiful island, one of my cousins was making jewelry and I asked her to teach me. I was hooked. When came back to the USA from my vacation, I started taking every class I could: knotting, wire wrapping, stringing, everything. I started buying beads, supplies, findings, I could not stop until today.

3. Can you walk us through your creative process?
It is simple, I am always looking and thinking about things.... Then I start imagining colors, music, sometimes they get crazy in my head... but I always have a lot of pieces of paper everywhere and write everything that comes to my mind.
Because it is not easy when you are mom, wife, employee, woman, friend, sister, daugther, sometimes it gets overwhelming because you just want to be creating, working, thinking about your own things. But it is important to find and have a balance in everything you do.

4. Can we peek into your studio? Are you a Felix or an Oscar? It is really, really messy. So yes I'm an Oscar. 5. What do you do when you get blocked? When I get blocked I get extremely anxious and my studio ends up being a mess, because I forced myself to create something, but creativity does not happen. It takes me probably two days to straight it out again.

6. What does your art mean to you? My art means a lot to me because it is the way to communicate with others. We can transmit a lot of messages with art. I am a little bit shy but when tt pertains to what I make I can talk and talk and talk... It makes me feel free and I believe that every talent is a gift from God and we have to use it for good.

7. Where do you get your inspiration? I get inspired by almost everything. The fact that I am from an island makes me feel calm just to think about water, colors, sound of a palm tree with the wind... But one thing I have realized is that I need to feel in peace in order to be creative...Those crazy times in life do not help me... That is why I walk every day, love to listen music because that way my spirit gets peace and calm. Also I ask God that He blesses the talent He gave me and allows me to create pieces that has a meaning for whoever gets them.

8. As an artist, what do you want to be best remembered for? I want to be remembered as the woman who thinks "every woman has to be the light" to those around her. Bring light to others and you will be happy!!

Do you have a day job? If so how do you balance your practical life with your creative one? If not, what's your day look like? In Florida I had a day job, It was a stressful one as an account executive in an export company. Since we moved 2 1/2 months ago I am not working at this time.
When I was working it was really hard to find a balance between my art and my job because it was so stressful that it sometimes just killed my creative process and only during the quiet weekends was when I could create pieces, but all the time I was thinking about the designs on my mind.
Here in Louisiana I have more time for myself and I am feeling more inspired.

10. Who's your favorite artists and/or style. I have a lot of favorities, to mention some of them:
Frida Khalo, Candido Bido (He is a dominican painter), Oscar de la Renta, Penny Preville. Ohhh and I love Rosa Oriol (Creator of Tous teddy bear)

11. Any advice for beginning artists? Never get discouraged, there is always somebody saying it is not going to work. Just trust in yourself and in your talent. God does not make mistakes.

You can connect with Luz on facebook
www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Orel-Design/251525434860824