Known for her very unique paper-cutting illustration style, Chloé Fleury is a French artist/illustrator who is now based in the United States. She studied visual communication at École de Communication Visuelle (ECV) in Aix-en-Provence, France, but as for her paper art, she is completely self-taught. Her education began during childhood. She made boxes, origami, and tiny folded worlds entirely out of colored paper. It’s not surprising given her family, though. She looked on as her very precise, scientific father crafted models of boats and cars (perhaps that’s where she gets her extreme patience for the detailed work she creates). Chloé’s mother and grandmother loved the arts, décor, and fashion, always taking special care to help Chloé with her art projects for school, and her grandfather owned an art gallery. They spent hours together, visiting the museums of France—a very special education, indeed.
JC—Why are you an artist?
CF—Since I was a child, I have felt a need to create. I’ve been making things for as long as I can remember! I’ve always been a collector of nice images, ribbons . . . a space arranger, a dreamer. I’ve always been curious and really attracted to textures, papers, fabrics, colors, and nice clothes, cool packaging, and book covers. I see things that make me want to create all the time.
JC—Where do find those things that make you want to create?
CF—Everywhere! Nature, food, magazines . . . music inspires me a lot. I love going to shows and festivals. Fashion, window shopping, and visual merchandising. People, my lovely friends, and travels, definitely. I’d love to see South America, Japan, and India. The cities I’ve been living in (Paris, Montreal, San Francisco) have had a strong effect on my work, and I just can’t wait to see how it is going to evolve in the future!
JC—Did you feel any self-doubt at the beginning of your illustration career?
CF—There’s a moment when you leave school to start your career and you say, “OK, so I have a diploma in art, but will I ever be really an illustrator?” This moment lasted a couple of years for me. I was still in France, and I sent my portfolio to book publishers, magazines . . . and I didn’t receive any answers. It was really hard. I was working as a graphic designer, but every day I couldn’t wait to leave—I just wanted to keep working on my own projects so that I could improve, discover my own style, and at some point find success.
JC—When did you start to find that success? When did you feel like this was really happening?
CF—It was a few years ago when a well-known design blog wrote about my work. I started to receive e-mails from people all over the world to compliment my work, and tell me how I inspired them. That was very encouraging and touching! Then my first exhibition followed, as well as my first client. People were asking for “my style.” I have a stylist friend who told me, “I love how easy it is to tell it is your work!”—that felt really good!
JC—Which artist’s work/life/career are you most jealous of, and why?
CF—This is probably my love for fashion, but I’ve been jealous of the illustrators using embroidery. I’m obsessed with it. So I love Kat Macleod, Caroline Hwang, Megan Whitmarsh, Lorena Marañón, and Maricor/Maricar. When I was at school, I used to experiment a lot with fabric and thread, then after graduating I found myself working with paper . . . only paper. I’d really like to introduce embroidery into my work in the future—find a way to mix it with paper.
JC—Does criticism affect you?
CF—It depends on how it is formulated. Criticism can hurt my feelings sometimes, but it also helps improve my work. You spend so many hours on a piece that sometimes it’s good to step back and have other people give feedback.
JC—Do you ever hear your inner critic?
CF—All the time! It’s horrible, but that’s what makes my work evolve too. You have to criticize and challenge yourself.
JC—Do you ever have creative blocks?
CF—Of course, yes, it’s really hard to deal with. When this happens, I ask myself so many questions, and it’s impossible to produce anything. The less I do, the more I have time to doubt my work and the purpose of my career. I hate those days! But they are also good because I can step back from my work, and return with fresh ideas!
JC—Would you ever force yourself to finish a piece?
CF—It really depends on my mood. Some days, I force myself to keep working on it until I’m happy. There are other days when I feel like if it doesn’t look good from the start, it will never look good. So I just throw it away and go watch TV shows, eat chocolate, and hope that tomorrow will be a better day!
JC—And finally, do you have any advice for an artist who is considering making a move to the United States?
CF—The advice I would give is to really believe in it, and if you want something it will happen. I made it happen by coming for three months as a tourist, which gave me time to decide that I wanted to live in San Francisco. I worked hard to find an internship, and then got hired. You just have to be super motivated and patient because there’s a lot of paperwork, and it costs a lot of money too—but it’s worth it! It really is the American dream!
Since I was a child, I have felt a need to create.
