Sitting in the soft sunny glow of light at her ash wood desk, before a red jarrah framed window, Ariane Torelli stares out at the willy-wag-tails and black and red cockatoos socializing in the tall tree across the way. Her inspiration seems to come from the symbiosis of flora and fauna around her little house in Perth, Western Australia. The drawings and paintings, the animations she brings to life, shine with the light of love. Hers is a wonderfully uplifting story that reflects well a commonality of excellence many share.
A 3D visualizer by trade, Ariane is an admitted film and animation addict who wants more than anything to touch people’s lives with her art. She is one of the most expressive people I’ve met in some time. In one interview with her, she told of the deep satisfaction that drives her sweet and thoughtful creations:
“I love to create and breath life into characters, creatures, and environments that impact all the generations of people around the world.”
Ariane was born in Switzerland and immigrated to Western Australia with her parents. She’s an enigmatic but sweet soul whose talent and experience have evolved a lot in a relatively short time. Since she was four, she proclaimed she wanted to become the next great director of animation. In pursuit of this dream, she’s worked tirelessly toward her vision. She’s admittedly impatient to get to the next threshold. Like so many talented creatives, she mirrors the need for a life balance via her art.
In all of her works, there’s a hint of inner crisis calmed by the hand of someone who prefers tranquility and beauty. The results tell me the chaos which provides formative impetus in artists. Ariane is burning up with a passion for sharing the light within her; the spark of this desire and caring lingers above even her digital works. In an interview, she described being in grammar school, anxious to get to high school. Then when she was at the University, she was racing to get into the industry.
Since she was little, Ariane studied subjects like anatomy, storytelling, art basics, and other vital aspects most great animation directors understand. At first, her efforts were of a traditional mix, but at sixteen, she got into digital art. The artist earned an Advanced Diploma in Animation but learned that the industry is not conducive to accepting new talent. For a time, Ariane lost her inspiration to draw. She now recollects losing all enjoyment of painting and creating because employers stifle creativity like hers. She separated from convention to start her own freelance company.
Her story is a typical one in many ways. The “dread” she now recalls over uncertainty and divergent paths, it’s a common thread for many of us. Determined, she keeps going. Here pursuit of place and knowledge took her to many countries. She worked in London for a spell and soaked up culture and ideas that inspired her, sporadically, she says, to continue her drawing. The adventure, she says, led her to a re-discovery of her love for art.
Now she dreams of telling her stories through a kind of visual novel. And she seems to have conquered the urgency inside her too. She tells me my favorite artworks of hers were very time-consuming, slow by some people’s standards. Now she says she enjoys the process as much as the end result. The sense of calm in her works is fascinating.
I discovered Ariane at a platform called ArtStation because of the work above, and I dubbed it “Ariadne” after the daughter of King Minos, a Minoan princess of Crete. She tells me this painting of a beautiful girl was inspired by an image of such a girl, her hairstyle and expression, and the unspoken way the girl seemed to say, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay.” Ariane says she wanted to show how even if someone is in a freefall, lost and scared, calm will prevail. The artists expressed it this way:
“While this might not be the most exciting theme or idea, I truly hope that if someone stumbles across my artwork, they feel a sense of calm and peace.”
Sometimes interviews just run too short. Talking with Ariane during a busy week, I felt this way when after running out of time. At length, I asked her about the tools she uses to create her beautiful paintings and drawings. For digital art, Ariane prefers Wacom Intuos, but for working outside or at a sidewalk cafe, she used her iPad and a program called ProCreate. Though she seems proficient with these from my perspective, I cannot help but detect a real passion for pencils and brushes from her. She tells me she even loves sculpting with clay and sewing clothes.
Ariane’s craft seems as natural as her sweet disposition and demeanor. I am sure it’s a DNA thing since she tells me her whole family is artistic and “crafty,” as she describes them. Her grandmother on her mother’s side made clothes. Her paternal grandmother used to create paintings using tiny pebbles. Her sister, she says, is an audio engineer who helps Ariane with live audio and makes her own music – BKT audio.
When I asked her about her dream of the future, Ariane said she has “downsized” her ambition from the grand plan of a renowned director like Spielberg to one that, for me, better matches her pure personality. In her answer, I find a warm and fascinating self-realization too. Ariane’s uplifting story is a bright one because it exemplifies all our life stories. Her journey is your adventure.
“In 10 years, I hope that someone will write that I have lived a life of creativity, creating many worlds, creatures, characters, and ideas through the inspirations and experiences of the people and the world that surround me.”
It’s a beautiful dream, isn’t it?
