Spotlight
A Moment with Marlène Traoré - Duffay
3.14.22
Interview: Ajay Woolery
Media: Marlène Traoré - Duffay
Recently we met with Parisian artist Marlène Traoré - Duffay. In this feature she walks us through the thoughts behind her creative outputs.
AW:
Tell me more about yourself and what you’re creating…
MTD: My name is Marlène Traoré - Duffay I’m 18 years old, I’m in high school and I live in Paris. I like to create paintings mainly portraits but also objects and clothes. I like to experiment and always try new ways of practising art.
AW:
What were your first introductions to the field and practice of art?
MTD: My first passion was fashion, then fashion introduced me to drawing so I started to draw, to make fashion sketches etc then by drawing I started to get more and more interested in art in general until I found a passion for painting.
Work by: Marlène Traoré - Duffay
AW:
Are there any themes that drive your work?
MTD: There aren’t really any themes that guide my work, I don’t want to lock myself in themes, I just like to represent what I see in my mind, create my own world that allows me to escape reality. I interpret the world as I see it.
AW:
What inspires the identity of your pieces?
MTD: What inspires the aesthetic of my pieces is the atmosphere created by the music I listen to while I create. For example a piece won’t look the same if I listen to the music of Lenny Kravitz or Lana del Rey. I’m more inspired by sounds than images.
AW:
How do you get into your creative zone?
MTD: it's very simple, I put on some music, I gather all my ideas and I start!
Work by: Marlène Traoré - Duffay
AW:
Who or what has inspired/influenced/empowered you?
MTD: First I am very inspired by abstract art, my goal is not to represent reality but rather to interpret it in my own way and I think that abstract art is the best for that. I am also very inspired by music as said before, because it allows me to visualize things and give a voice to my works. I don’t like to limit myself or follow the traditional rules of art so the rock movement of the 90s inspired me a lot for this.
AW:
What does a typical day in your life look like?
MTD: I usually wake up between 6 am and 7 am to go to high school where I study geopolitics, economics etc. I go home at about 6 pm and I use all the time I have left to draw, create in general and do my homework.
AW:
How do you make the leap from idea to creation?
MTD: My creative process isn’t really conventional because I’m very spontaneous when I create and I don’t necessarily take the time to create a whole process. The final work generally looks nothing like what I had imagined at the beginning. So I would say, That my creative process is to try, to experiment until I’m satisfied.
Work by: Marlène Traoré - Duffay
AW:
Apart from your primary medium, do you have any other creative interests?
MTD: Yes, I’m also very passionate about fashion, I want to join a fashion school next year. I really like to combine painting and fashion because I think they are two practices that go perfectly together and it’s a way for me to combine my two passions.
AW:
What's the greatest lesson you've learned so far, as a creator?
MTD: As a creator, I think the best lesson I’ve learned is to allow myself to fail. I think that failure is part of the process that allows artists to always improve and go further. I even think it is important to fail because by failing we can observe our mistakes in order to not repeat them.
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