Daily Inspiration: Meet Annaleah Gregoire

Today we’d like to introduce you to Annaleah Gregoire.

Hi Annaleah, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been surrounded by a community of artists and small business owners throughout my life who have inspired and supported me as I begin to pursue a career as a freelance artist. I started creating screen printed t-shirts with my illustrations on them at the age of 17. I attended Massachusetts College of Art and Design from 2016-2017 and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from California College of the Arts in 2021. It was also in 2021 that I began a fine art and apparel business, Annaleah Moon Studios, from the makeshift studio in my home, as well as offering private art lessons to beginners. I had a solo exhibition, “Unpleasantly Beautiful” at the Pushkin Gallery in Greenfield, Massachusetts in February of 2022 and have since been keeping myself busy with other fine art exhibitions, commissions, craft shows, and lots of play in the studio!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Thanks to my incredible collectors and supporters (and a ton of hard work!), it’s been a fairly smooth road to get to where I am now. It has of course come with many obstacles, one of which is that I struggle with chronic migraines, sometimes making it incredibly difficult to do the work that I need to do. Like many artists, the start of the pandemic also threw a curve ball into my practice, which was at the time relying entirely on the tools and resources available in the studios at my college. With the studios being closed, I quickly had to accommodate my practice to one that required extremely little funds or machinery. Despite these challenges, I’m beyond grateful to be able to sustain myself from my artwork.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
There is a powerful pull toward the strange. The strange compels me to explore and expose people to ideas that might be uncomfortable. I find beauty in looking at the remnants of transformation – what is present yet invisible, what rots and how it transitions over time, and what evokes a visceral reaction. My work destabilizes traditional beauty standards by exposing vulnerable and sometimes disturbing aspects of my body.

By peeling back layers of flesh and bone, I am able to freely investigate the dualities of the interior and exterior as well as the grotesque and beautiful. My work sits between the real and fantastic to highlight moments where beauty and the grotesque merge.

Through visual dissection and amputation, I examine aspects of my own form as well as that of animals by excavating their interior. I use medical images such as x-rays as well as historical and contemporary medical and scientific documents as a way to depict the internal form. By exposing spots of trauma layer by layer, my practice illuminates the uncomfortable and honest pain of healing.

These sculptures created first by making multiple digital illustrations, which are then printed and used as a template to etch each design by hand on multiple layers of recycled windows. They are lit using LEDs.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If you’re interested in purchasing an original artwork, apparel/prints, and for commission requests, feel free to check out more work at the links below and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

You can also subscribe to my Patreon page for exclusive early access to content, including invitations to events, opportunities to purchase items before they are released on other platforms, and gifts to thank you for your support!

www.patreon.com/annaleahmoon

Pricing:

• “Exposed” 28″ x 28″ x 4″ $500
• “Internalized Circuit” 12″ x 28″ Sold
• “Mobility”  28″ x 28″ x 4″ Sold
• “Shed Your Skin” 28″ x 28″ x 6″ $600
• “Wrong Tooth” 6″ x 6″ x 5″ Sold
• “Through the Looking Glass” t-shirt $30
• “Inside Out” t-shirt $30

Contact Info:

• Website: www.annaleahmoonstudios.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/annaleah.moon.studios
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/annaleah.moon.studios
• Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UC5ozpdSC-CPY-1HsD2qwuUw
• Other: www.etsy.com/shop/AnnaleahMoonStudios