A Conversation with: Painter, Educator & Owner of ‘Beyond The Layout’, Tiffany B Chanel
The Localista Q & A
Self-taught artist and educator Tiffany B Chanel is driven by passion and purpose. Through her kaleidoscopic portraiture, she depicts pop icons and everyday people with unapologetic vibrancy, and aims to illuminate the inner beauty within each of her subjects.
R. Britton/Photographer
What’s your name and tell us a little bit about who are you?
“Tiffany B Chanel and I am an artist, entrepreneur, teacher I am a portrait artist.”
What kind of an Artist are you?
“ I am a portraiture artist, so I am usually studying faces. Some people say it’s pop art because I paint in color. I never paint realistic skin tones, maybe once in a while but when I do it's like 5% of that and everything else is color.”
Can you describe your day-to-day?
“I teach elementary and first to fifth grade school kids so we work in small groups. When you are teaching in class you identify everyones talent. You are giving them the space as well to support their gift to grow. My job is to show them that they can take it there, because we are in an environment where parents don’t embrace their gifts all the time. So you need someone to tap in and show them what they’re capable of.”
“Beyond the layout, is a class that I created in order to empower people to think outside of the box. When I look at the Paint and Sip classes, it’s instructional rather than organic. To me you’re not thinking you are listening to an instructor and yes you end up with a final masterpiece. But it has nothing to do with you, nothing that you’re passionate about - you’ve been told everything.
So I’ve created a class with a layout. You look at this layout and you add to it. It might be music themed, cultural, or animals they may want to add anything they connect to. It’s the same people who walk in and say they can’t paint. Are the ones who leave saying, I finished, I did it and it looks like mine. It’s about thinking deep and pulling from within.”
What does your Art mean to you?
“You know when you are going through something and you might have people that you want to share that information with and then you have some people that you don’t trust to express yourself to. Either way it’s a risk, but art is like that person you give it all to. You are allowed expression with no limits, no judgements. It’s a safe space, it’s freedom.”
What are your responsibilities as an independent Artist?
“Paint, answer emails, create contracts, listen to my clients. I also run the operations of my business… there is so much to do! What’s most important to my brand is reliability. I must meet deadlines and deliver on the dates agreed upon, by any means necessary. I don’t have an assistant, but during hards times I am grateful to have the support of my artistic mother - who jumps in to help. But it’s like you are the teacher and the student, you are learning as you’re going and then you are applying that to everything you do.”
What is your personal or professional motto?
”Just Start. We sit down and over think - just do it, figure it out and start! Accept that you are going to mess up and make mistakes. You might also fail, but that’s the beauty in it because you need to learn nothing is going to be perfect and as long as you know nothing is going to be perfect. You’ll know its okay to just start and everything will fall into place. It removes the fear and resistance because you know it’s always going to be there.”
At what point in your life did you first learn about your field of work? What called you to it?
”I wanted some gold Converse sneakers, I walked around all of New York City and did lots of research but I couldn’t find what I wanted. So I started looking into paints. I never did anything like that before but I knew that I was going to make a way. It was a lot of trail and error with testing types of paints to use on fabric. Once I got it just right, I wore them everyday. At the time I was working in Soho, New York City and I would have people ask me where I got my sneakers from because Converse ( is down the block ) and they don’t have those. My first sale shipped to France and it just kept going from there. The gravitation of clients, exclaiming that they needed my work made it clear to me that this is a gift.”
What does the world need more of? Or less of?
“The world needs less of people down-playing themselves compared to others. I hear it quite often, you can see something great in someone else and them not willing to own that. People need more of, owning what they have. I get it you may not believe fully. But at the end of the day in order for others to believe in you, it starts with you believing in yourself. No body would have thought I was great at art, if I didn’t think I was great at art. If you keep telling yourself you are not great, eventually you are going to believe that you’re not great. We already have people who are willing to do that to us. So why do it to ourselves? “
What does success mean to you?
“Not giving up, success is facing everyday, allowing yourself to grow and stepping out of comfort. Success is knocking down those walls that matter.”
Name your greatest success (or something you're most proud of) in your business experiences.
“My first mural for this garden called Marcy Playground, in Brooklyn New York. I was contacted by TBS, stating: We have a project opportunity for you and we feel like you are the right person. It is in your neighborhood and we know that you would really appreciate this unique moment. Like I said I have never done a mural that big to scale. So even that was kind of off, since they asked: do you ‘think’ you can do this, because we think you can do this. We can support you by bringing someone else to help bring this idea to life.
You’re already offering a situation that could create doubt within myself. So, I took a day to think about if I needed someone to help 8 x 10 feet wooden panels mural.
When it went into the garden it just felt like something that was being brought into my home. Born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn… to hear them say we chose you because you are from Bed-Stuy and Tracy represents Bed-Stuy. You saw something in me, which I didn’t see in myself yet!
With the help of my mom, who assisted me she was great at detail and figure out spacing, it was a challenge, where to start and how to put things in the right proportions. I did it in seven days, all while I was still teaching. I didn’t feel like I would make the deadline, but I did. It was a crazy challenge - all up until they rang my doorbell to pick it up. When it went into the garden it just felt like something that was being brought into my home.”
What tool, object or ritual could you not live without in your workday?
”The gym, I feel like is the only thing that keeps me calm and I focus on strength. What ever anxiety, I leave at the gym and the soar muscles remind me to release the stress. With all the work that I have coming my way there is no room to feel overwhelmed.”
How does your talent give back to help/support the community?
“Working in a school has really been a joy especially this year with the commercial. The kids at the school are excited seeing me their teacher on a commercial, being present in my community and doing classes. Being a teacher is truly a gift to give back to the community. You are going home with a new perspective, inspired and believing that you can just start.”
