Daily Inspiration: Meet Amber Lelli

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Lelli.

Amber, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Queens, New York in 1993 but moved to Colorado Springs, CO when I was a week old. I’m the third of four children, aka the introvert, and grew up with a Hispanic upbringing as my parents had immigrated from Argentina to the US in the late 80s.

I was always creative as a child, between making mud pies in the backyard, miniature sculptures out of leaves and sticks, and filling any paper in front of me with doodles, I was regularly finding a way to do something “artistic” and, more importantly at the time, FUN! My mother and father are also creative in their thinking, mainly my Mom. She used to paint, sow, and draw and that inspired me. When I was younger she would teach me how to draw and knit.

As a child, I always had Artist as one of my answers for “what I want to be when I grow up” along with astronaut, painter on the moon, and inventor. Being in Colorado Springs I spent my childhood at the base of Pikes Peak and, being surrounded by giant mountains as a kid influenced how I think about scale in my work today.

From Colorado, I relocated with my family to Tennessee right before middle school and I have been working and living here since. I didn’t begin to pursue art making as a career until university and didn’t fall in love with sculpture as my medium until then as well. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University with a BFA I went on to work as a production sculptor for Jonathan Martin Museum Arts and Studio Manager for Alan LeQuire. Both of these positions expanded my vision of what an artist could be and prepared me for the public art part of my practice.

Currently, my studio is housed in the basement portion of renowned sculptor, Alan LeQuire’’s studio. I get to create my work surrounded by remnants of many famous monumental sculptures and I love it. It’s invigorating and inspirational to get to work in an environment with great history and resources.

Today my art practice is in full swing. I have created large-scale sculptures for companies like the Nashville International Airport BNA, Jäegermeister USA, Bonnaroo Music, and Arts Festival, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and others. I have exhibited my sculpture throughout the US and most recently at the National Sculpture Society in Manhattan, NY. My two-person exhibition with Michelle Armas “In the Making” at Modfellows Art Gallery was just awarded a Best of Nashville Award for 2022. I also have a commission from Metro Arts Nashville to create a suspended sculpture for the new Donelson Library that will be unveiled in 2024!

I work hard every day to make a career as an artist a reality and I am always looking for new opportunities to continue growing in my field and sharing my art with others.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The road of an artist, at least all the ones I have met, is never a smooth one. Mine has been full of struggles and obstacles along the way. A big struggle has been creating a path forward when one isn’t present. In art, there is no set road of doing this and doing that and then you get this, like in other careers. Once you get past a certain level of talent or skill it becomes all about who you know and what opportunities you are given or create for yourself. The lack of clarity and security this career provides has been a real struggle but I believe in the work that I am making and that keeps me going.

I am so thankful for the knowledge that those around me have been generous enough to give along the way. Art is all about learning as you go and it really hasn’t been until this past year, 7 years in, that I am starting to reap the financial benefits from my artwork. The biggest challenge is to pursue your passion as your career with no guarantee that it will ever work out. No guarantee that you will eventually make enough from art to stop all the side hustle jobs.

No guarantee that people will enjoy what you put out there. It’s been a big lesson in believing in myself and pushing through challenges to make my dream a reality.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m an interdisciplinary artist with an emphasis on sculpture, marquetry, and printmaking. My artistic process is very much rooted in exploration and research. For the past couple of years, I have been looking into subjects like social inclusion, historical accountability, identity, and theoretical common ground. These are the concepts that much of my work is focused on and I pick the materials that best communicate the idea that I am trying to convey with each piece.

I specialize in the marriage of various materials and their languages and hold quality craftsmanship in high esteem. I am most proud of the various skills I have acquired from bronze casting, traditional print methods, monumental sculpture techniques, and new technologies. I love learning and am grateful that I have had the opportunity to learn so much over the years. I enjoy engaging in these highly technical and traditional processes and applying them to these ideas to communicate and relate with others through art. I think it’s important as we move more and more away from the handmade in our society to have people who still know how to do these processes and I’m proud to be invested in them.

When looking through my portfolio of both, my fine artwork and public works, you can see these skills on display.

You will see things like surreal figurative bronze and glass works colorful prints and large-scale environment installations. While being diverse in a range of materials, all of my work embodies an aesthetic that is smart, bold, spatially conscious, intricate, and at times, colorful.

We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
I think risk-taking is imperative to a good life. When I was younger I was a big risk taker, zoom down this hill on my rollerblades? No problem. Jump over this cactus bunch with your bike? You got it. Leave a note for your dad that you’re going to a sleepover with no instructions or cell phone at 8 years old. Yep. However, if I’m being honest, I lost all of my risk-taking ability as I entered middle school and my introversion really kicked in. It wasn’t until about five years ago that I started to be a real risk-taker again. I took a big risk and got into counseling, facing things head-on. I chose to be an artist, one of the biggest risks of all to pursue a career path in art with no fallback plan. I have this thing I do when I feel nervous now, I say “c’est la vie” to myself out loud and then I just do it. Whatever it is that is scaring me (obviously within healthy reason) I try my best now to choose to face it. I’ve seen so much of my life be on hold due to the fear of risk-taking that I am now trying to be bolder and braver and do the things that make me uncomfortable. It’s scary but highly recommended. My life has been full of so much more color now that I am a risk-taker again. I’m even doing comedy improv which is a HUGE risk for an introvert like myself, but it’s been great! I still struggle of course, like almost everyone, with the fear a risk possesses. But I’m much more equipped to deal with that fear now and in hindsight I’ve been pleased with all the risks I have taken so far.

One of my earlier works “We change with the passing of every sun” is a bronze piece that says “The time comes when we cannot remove them without removing the skin.” It speaks to the mask that we all wear and put on throughout our lives. Eventually, if you wear the mask long enough, then it becomes who you are and it’s painful to change. I think the greatest risk we all face, but that we all must embrace, is having the courage to be ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amberlelliart.com
• Instagram: @amberlelliart and @amber_lelli
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amberlelliart/

Image Credits
Christopher Wormald