@vleprince

Instagram: @vleprince  

1. What's your story? Where are you from?

My name is Vincent Leprince, I'm 24 and grew up in the french countryside. I spent most of my teenage years in boarding school and was on a path to a career in sciences until the day my math teacher told me "There's no room for creativity in this field. Just deal with it." So I quit, dropped everything and moved to Canada to study Architecture. But I return to France during holidays seasons.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

I like to create surreal, dreamy atmospheres that mix the familiar and the strange. I experiment with collage and geometric shapes, but also more recently with axonometric drawing. I feel like all these elements will always manifest in what I make and could eventually merge to create impossible but evocative spaces. There's also a strong sense of nostalgia in my work, a longing for a time or a place that never really existed.

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

I've tried many different things but I'd say digital collage is my favorite. I like the complete freedom it gives me and it's one of the rare things I can do without overthinking. It's very refreshing and relaxing.

4. What is your artistic process like?

I usually start with a picture I find interesting or a quick geometric composition in photoshop with a certain mood in mind, then I let my instincts do the rest. It's always thrilling to see that the final result is never what I had anticipated in the first place. With that in mind I like to keep things as spontaneous as possible so I usually make everything in one shot. I can hardly stop once I've started, so if inspiration strikes at midnight chances are I'll stay up all night to complete a piece.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

Dreams, science-fiction, music, other artists' work.. My influences range from surreal painters like René Magritte or Yves Tanguy, to sci-fi and utopian architecture from the 60's. As a kid I used to fantasize about alternate worlds and create absurd scenarios in my mind. If anything, what I do today is probably a continuation of that.

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

Like most people, it's something I use as an outlet. It allows me to stop thinking and just do whatever I want. It's basically everything that I'll never be able to imagine as an architect because, you know, reality and all.

7. Where did you study?

I studied hard sciences in France to become an engineer before switching for architecture on what felt like a whim. It ended up being one of the best decisions I've ever made.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years? Working in an agency?

Architect by day and artist by night, that's what I aspire to be for now. I don't know if I would ever do art full-time, maybe if the right opportunities come along.

9. What about in ten?

I'm hoping art will have taken more space in my life by then and that I'll be able to collaborate with people and exhibit my own work. Other than that I have no idea.

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

I do it mostly for my own satisfaction, but if I can also inspire other people or make them wish they could live in my illustrations then I'd be thrilled.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

My grandma's stuffed tomatoes ! As much as I've tried, I've never been able to recreate them quite the same way.

12. Favourite book?

Do comic books count? L'Incal by Jodorowsky and Moebius is probably what first made me want to make art as a kid.

13. Favourite genre of music?

There's too many to pick just one. I've been listening to a lot of hip-hop and 80's synth-pop lately though.

14. What are your hobbies?

I like to play guitar, it's my other outlet. I also really enjoy cooking.

15. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

It's hard to imagine myself not being involved with art in some kind of way. I would have probably ended up as an engineer or a math teacher somewhere in France.