Meet Ariel DeAndrea

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ariel DeAndrea a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ariel, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience, for me, comes from making art. Painting has always been my way through uncertainty and change—it keeps me grounded, curious, and moving forward. At the same time, painting asks resilience of me in return, especially as I navigate the challenges of sustaining a professional art practice in an unpredictable world. Like most meaningful pursuits, there’s a quiet, beautiful exchange—a give and take that deepens with time and commitment.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m a fine artist best known for my paintings of water—serene, expansive surfaces often carrying origami cranes that float across them. My work explores impermanence, calm, and the quiet of nature. What excites me most is creating spaces of stillness and reflection for the viewer.

In parallel with my painting practice, I’ve developed large-scale installations of suspended paper cranes—thousands of them arranged to evoke the movement and grace of flocks in flight. Together, these dual bodies of work reflect the meditative, layered quality of both my process and the natural world.

There is a sense of healing in this practice, and I’m currently focused on expanding it into hospital and public art spaces—environments where its quiet presence feels like a natural and necessary fit.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Persistence, sincerity, and patience have been essential in my journey as an artist.

Persistence kept me going through rejection, uncertainty, and long stretches without external validation.

Sincerity allowed me to stay connected to the heart of the work—to create honestly, without chasing trends or external approval.

Patience has taught me to trust the rhythm of both the artwork and the path itself. Nothing meaningful happens overnight.

For those just starting out: stay close to what moves you. Show up consistently, work with intention, and give your practice the time it needs to evolve.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

The Letters of Vincent van Gogh has had a lasting impact on me. His writing reveals the vulnerability, depth, and sincerity behind the work—reminding me that art doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be honest.

There’s a line where he says he hopes people will see in his work that he felt tenderly and deeply. That stayed with me. It reminds me that the emotional core of the work matters most—and that staying connected to that feeling is its own form of success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.arieldeandrea.com
• Instagram: @arieldeandreaartist
• Facebook: Ariel DeAndrea

Image Credits

@lbmaorg
@arieldeandreaartist