Story & Lesson Highlights with Loretta Pena of Neighborhood

We recently had the chance to connect with Loretta Pena and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Loretta, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I feel like I am walking a path most of the time but find myself wandering once in a while. I know that I want and would love to paint for the rest of my life and feel confident that this is it for me. There are some days however, where the negative thoughts creep in and I start to wonder “what am I doing?”

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Loretta Pena and I create paintings from memories, experiences and world topics. It had a severe anxiety attack from stress at my job at the time that landed me in the emergency room and caused me to rethink my future. I had to make a decision to continue at a job where I was killing myself or begin my journey as a painter. I decided that it was time for me to think of me and what makes me happy. All my life it was about my family and everyone else. I never really did anything for me so I was glad that I took the plunge. That’s when I chose art as my new path and it’s something that really makes me happy. My art may not be what you would want to put up on your walls but it does tell a story, one that you may be able to relate to. Most of my art is created with bright, bold colors and I think that might be what stands out most about my work. I use art as my therapy most of the time. There is so much going on in the world and it feels good to get my feelings out on canvas. I am working on a couple of paintings now using some of those current issues as inspiration.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
To be honest, I had no confidence at all. Zero. I was bullied at school because I did not fit in. It was hard for me to make friends and I was teased a lot for looking different. My home life wasn’t any better. My mother and father had physical and verbal fights daily and because I was the oldest daughter, I became their referee. It was difficult to function though I did get good grades in school. Because of all that was going on in my life, I believed nothing in my life would get better. I honestly felt death might be a better option than continuing to live this life. I was thinking this at 12 years old. It was a trip to Disneyland after my father died that I had this epiphany in our hotel room that I knew that I wasn’t going to fail. It was when I got my first job that I slowly gained confidence and realized working hard was what made me stand out. I enjoyed the praise and encouragement and soon I started to believe that life was worth living and that I could be totally happy someday and I truly am now. Positive thinking worked in my favor.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I believe everything happens for a reason no matter how tragic the occurrence may be. I believe the bullying at school, my parent’s fights, my father dying when I was 12 years old, growing up fast and having to play the 2nd parent are all defining wounds in my life that made me who I am today. All of those things tested my resilience and faith. I believe they were stepping stones to who I was going to be. I appreciate all of those defining events now that I could look back at them. I feel I am a pretty strong person to have survived all of that.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
I think that some smart people have it wrong when they feel helping the less fortunate is a disadvantage to the person and society. I think that this is completely opposite of what will happen if we helped one another. We are stronger when all of us feel that we are part of a group that needs one another where everyone feels that they are an important part of the big picture. Imagine how great life would be if we all changed our way of thinking. There would be more opportunities for employment, for housing for the less fortunate. Crime would decrease as well because there would be less need to commit crimes to survive. I am not saying it will totally fix our problems but it will certainly help. Positive thinking vs. negative thinking.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope people will remember me as a creator of art that inspired. I hope they tell a story of a person that really cared about others. I hope that my art allowed the audience to enter a world where they could feel each chapter of my story in every painting I created.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artpiecebypeace.com
• Instagram: artpiecebypeace