Rising Stars: Meet Blake Lenoir

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Lenoir. 

Hi Blake, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Well, where do I begin, I’m from the South Side of Chicago, born and raised, I was a reclusive kid coming up though heavily involved in sports, mainly basketball, which was initially my outlet, I’ve always found my true homeostasis when creating. Primarily a drawer starting at the age of 2 my mother recalls, I have always been extremely detail-oriented as she recalls my first drawing being that of an intention to draw the feathers on a duck. Fast forward I went to college at Western Illinois University where I studied Art but not out of passion initially. 

I went on to earn a BFA in Art with a Focus in Drawing where I intentionally avoided taking painting classes due to my fear of using an unfamiliar medium because of my own then unrealistic expectation for myself to be just as good with it as I draw with my pencil.

Maybe 3 months before graduation, in my 400 level Art History Class, we covered the respected but controversial Duchamp & Basquiat and my interest in pursuing more cynically therapeutic expressions of my culture and upbringing in the work I wanted to produce came to be. Even though I felt I hadn’t found the medium of choice to express it other than writing, I knew I had to pursue a new form of expression to feel “new” and authentic.

The entendres in Duchamp’s & Basquiat’s work exposed me to my mind’s surrealistic side and cynicism toward human interaction and it did so because initially, I thought their works had none whatsoever until I attempted to dissect their work unbeknownst, I became a fan in the same breath. The day after I saw the Jean Michel Basquiat biopic, I purchased a starter painting kit and I fooled around with it until I frustrated myself, thinking “this ain’t it for me, I don’t know what I’m doing, just stop”. After a few more what I say mediocre paint splatters, I put the supplies away and went on to graduate weeks after.

Here’s when the universe made me know my calling was at hand. After a few hard years after graduation and bouncing from job to job, I landed a position in Human Resources where I was then excited to be a recruiter, but was severely underpaid. Nearly a year later I am at my desk and at my wit’s end of being employed at this company, so much so that it made me wonder what I truly wanted for myself in life, I just knew this wasn’t my success and who I saw myself becoming. At this point, I had been taking more interest back into my craft drawing at my desk and painting when I got home to get back to something I loved to do and also just to relieve some stress from work primarily. I began making these abstract figure paintings that allowed me some familiarity with how to use the paint and also to vent out my frustrations or concerns with life happening or my own life.

Nearly every other night for a few months straight I’d make a few pieces. Shortly after posting a few, I had sold a nice bit of them, but nothing to make a living on, but it certainly allowed me to unwind my thoughts more & more each week. As I continued my day job in Human Resources and I this day had one where it seemed nothing could go right, so I whip out my little notebook and I write down a list of goals, after finally heeding the advice of a few friends and family to write down what I want to accomplish, I arrive to the phrase “Find Your Yes”. This phrase “Find your yes” has shaped my career and outlook on life as a man as I continue to do so relentlessly and with full fortitude and optimism toward where I’m headed in all aspects of me.

Few days later ironically, I get fired and because I seemed “distant” from the workplace, and I use that moment to fire myself up to pursue my revitalized passion. I get my last check and I go buy a few big canvases and some supplies and after a few years of hard work and diligence in serving the art community I then began to put on, participate and curate live painting events and that’s where my popularity and notoriety in the quality and mental health-centered messaging in my work began to become more locally and nationally recognized so much so that it ended up earning me an invitation to a then goal of mine written the day I got fired “Get to Art Basel “which preludes my first ever solo exhibition at the Blanc Gallery Chicago. I have since done a plethora of 50+ Group Exhibitions, 3 Art Fairs, 4 Solo Exhibitions, and 4 Museums including the Cincinnati Art Museum. I continue to stand with and strive in my saying “Find Your Yes” and hope to encourage others to do so as well.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
A smooth road? In most regards no it has not, but what’s a good artist without a backstory, right? Common struggles along the way were knowing my value and how to and when to make myself accessible and how much to do so without over-compromising who I am as a man first and then as an artist. Another struggle was what I call “Art Impostor Syndrome” where I found it hard to create due to my brain’s overwhelming noise when attempting to “do something new” in my work because my sometimes-recurring anxiety made me feel as though “my new” was somehow, somewhere seen before. I’ve combatted that combo of feelings and thoughts with doing something random on the piece if I’m working on it and if not, I choose to do the same in life as well 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m what is called a “Surrealist Painter”, always contorting & contouring my thoughts’ reality and how I view and review the world we live in, sometimes revisiting traumatic or core situations to reimagine them solved or otherwise carefully handled rather than the latter which would be reason for the outcome at all. 

I specialize in evoking a series of responses of “imagine if that were you, how would you feel “& “it was/is you, how do you feel now, and why?” “could’ve been you and you recognize the resolve of the problem” “not you but you know someone who”. 

I’m known for work heavily based in distortional entendres that act as an inception of ideas and/or conversations necessary to bring about relief of the given conflict. My work is intended to both be therapeutically comical, yet cynical to the human experiences of interaction aiming to evoke conversational healing, and the conversational dispelling of generational and societal curses. 

I am most proud of first my decision to choose me and what I feel like is my calling to creation and secondly but not number two my son, he inspires me to challenge myself and my boundaries as an artist every day, our daily interactions give me hope and optimism that will soon reflect if it hasn’t already in my work. My family keeps me in good spirits so I’ll have to say I’m proud of them as well. 

What sets me apart is my gall to be transparent and raw in the execution of these moments that need to be addressed and reassessed so that they aren’t reanimated. What else sets me apart is my ability to make my work visually palatable to every generation before and after me to receive the intended message. 

What’s next?
My big plans for the future without giving too many details away include starting a non-for-profit & scholarship program for children in liberal arts and funding my own studio/gallery space/resource center. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blenartistry.com
• Instagram: @blenartistry