who is "lariadi?"
Drawing since age two, Lariadi is a multi-media visual artist who has developed her passion for intense details and magnified facial features in her many abstract paintings, murals and portraits. She is also a modern-day Renaissance artist with a style reminiscent of pop art, focusing on vibrant hues and strong messages hidden within her work.
As a child, Lariadi was always just content with a pencil and a sheet of paper. Anywhere she went, she'd ask for those two items to kill time and express her highly active imagination. Colors were never mandatory, but always accepted! Before kindergarden, Lariadi created a picture that impressed her daycare instructor so much, they turned the drawing into a cake design.
Throughout middle school, Lariadi entered annual poster contests that spoke against drug usage and alchohol consumption. Locally, she won first place each year taking home ribbons and trophies, would advance to the state level, and often on to the regional level from there. This annual contest participation continued on into her last year of high school, and is the primary credit for her refrain from drug usage--as it is often quite commonly accepted in the art world.
Overcoming the odds of being a "starving-artist" while starring in a true story of trial to triumph, Lariadi's career choice has never been a smooth and easily trodden path. Only her faith and determination have pulled her through an abusive past, THREE Near-Death experiences (including falling from a cliff and surviving with NO broken bones) and plenty of doubt and discouragement from her own family members, being labeled having A.D.D. and hearing statements like, “Just get a regular 9 to 5 job & be normal!” at times. Many hardships and heartaches would follow, including homelessness for a time after dropping out of college for financial reasons. She made a victorious comeback a year later and proved ANYTHING was possible when she returned...AND GRADUATED from a private HBU, Oakwood University with a degree in commercial art without owing the college ANY money! “From each challenge life has thrown at me, I have managed to victoriously overcome each adversity, developing strength, wisdom & courage from each one–-but only with God’s help,” states Lariadi.
Midwest-born in Illinois and bred in every region of the U.S. after the age of seven, Lariadi is now the Creative Marketing Director on the East Coast for a corporate franchise chain. She is also a fine artist, having works displayed at/in the following: The Nelson-Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City, Oakwood University, in the Raytown Post Newspaper and in The Washington Times during President Obama’s Inauguration, and boutiques in the Atlanta & Washington D.C. area.
Private collections across America also display many pieces of her commissioned art including a children's mural.
Aside from fine arts, Lariadi is an avid arts advocate who visits schools to encourage children to follow their dreams, an activist who’s hand-painted banner preceded a march for the freeing of the “Jena 6″, a free-lance photographer, a live-painting while singing & story-telling performing artist and a business woman. Currently, Lariadi is creating a new line of merchandise featuring her Custom Vintage Clutches for women.
She is definitely an emerging artist to look out for, while on the verge of proving success as the possibility against all odds.
Celebrities who have enjoyed Lariadi's Original Art...
Janet Jackson, Russell Simmons, Heather Hunter,
Janelle Monae, Ashton Kutcher, Dawn Robinson (EnVogue), Keith Robinson (Dream Girls) & more...
"My gifts come from God, and although He gave me the ability to be 'sick' with art, He is the only real cure for all of our sicknesses."
left: a drawing from Lariadi's sketchbook
art.foto.graphix: A way of "categorizing" the various works of the multi-talented Renaissance Artist, Lariadi, who is capable of doing so much more than simply paint.
the producer...
"Expressions" ART SHOW
In 2006, Lariadi coordinated the first student-produced art show, "Expressions", at the private HBU, Oakwood University, she attended. Framing students' work, erasing scuff marks, carrying and setting up numerous easels alone, Lariadi was disappointed with the lack of participation shown by her fellow students after facing initial opposition from faculty and staff to produce the show. However, Lariadi's art professor, whose works hang in museums and galleries across America, saw Lariadi's tenacity and ambition and began to entrust the entire project and, at times, the class to Lariadi.
In the end, the Expressions Art Show was a smashing success, drawing much attention to the little known art department of the liberal arts college. "Expressions" received praise from fellow students, the college newspaper, and the university's president, proving that persistance and hard work will get you to your goal!
the activist...
On September 20, 2007, this hand-painted banner (by Lariadi) along with hundreds of young students, press & media teams lead the way for the First civil rights march to Ever cover the entire Historic AUC campus which includes: Moorehouse University, Spelman College, Morris Brown University & Clark Atlanta University.
The march was a protest for the six Jena, Louisiana high school students that were unjustly tried after a fight deemed "racially inspired" broke out following the hanging of a noose on a tree on the school's campus. All of the incidents were triggered after a student questioned sitting under a tree that was "for [white] students only". To learn more, simply Google: The Jena 6.
the children's advocate...
Speaking to children is a wonderful and invaluable opportunity to encourage the pursuit of chasing and attaining dreams.
Here Lariadi visits a small private school in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, Georgia to speak about her original art, available career choices in the field art, and sharing encouragement to "dream big!"
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."
~ French Impressionist Artist, Edgar Degas