Meet Ciara Sanders: Visual Artist & Industrial Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ciara Sanders and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ciara, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Work life balance for me has its highs & lows, which I appreciate as an Artist. I am aware of problems will surface in any & everything we do or have going on, but it’s all about how you handle it. I whole heartedly know God doesn’t put more on us than we can bare, but I still try to be realistic with myself, my clients & supporters. It use to be me, squeezing in 15 orders & a class project all due in the span of 1-2 weeks. Now, since I’ve graduated, it’s solely work & just meeting my or the clients deadline. I try to make sure I’m on top of my orders & making sure I give each order the same attention as the last. Sometimes I do need to step away & take a breather & restart my mind with idle work or just some distressing creations of my own, until I’m ready to get back to work. Sometimes I want to get carried away in my own work, but that’s where that balance kicks in & I’ll put the customer back first. 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My brand of art work is heavily “black positive woman” with a mix of glam, that demands a certain type of attention when it enters a space. It in a way embodies the woman role models I’ve had in my life, such as my mother. She was a light in my life. My work is so rich with color & luminous essence that how could I not embody that positivity I saw, into my work for others to see. I adore every piece I make, so whatever I post or present was definitely created with intent & love. Talent is what I am aware I posse, but it is nothing when it’s accompanied with hard work. I’m not perfect but I will admit I go hard behind my artistic passion. I have tackled juggling work and school, but now working through the times of COVID-19 it has definitely been slight different & brought up challenges of its own. Although, having these new challenges, I thank God for the work he’s blessed me with during this pandemic because he didn’t have to, but he did.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have so much to be thankful for & I wanted to spread it to the people I appreciate the most. My Family & Friends who’ve came to any show because it means so much to me that they’ve came to physically support me & I want them to know personally I appreciate y’all from the bottom of my heart. I want to just shoutout the cities Laplace, New Orleans, Baton Rouge & Lafayette! Anyone whose hosted a show in these cities from Pat, Antarah & Ken, Toi, Syd, & anyone else I can’t recall at the moment y’all always kept me busy & productive in this journey. Every single college student from University of Louisiana at Lafayette & any other graduate student who has supported my work from portraits to grad caps. I appreciate every single one of y’all! & also UL organizations that booked me to come sell or live paint! And lastly to anyone who has been a support or mentioned my name/page in positivity. Y’all all are a blessing to my business. Thank you.

Website: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/ciara-sanders
Instagram: @Ciara_BaduMonae
Twitter: @Ciara_BaduMonae
Facebook: Ciara Sanders