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

Hi Natalie, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
It’s what I saw growing up, both of my parents taught at Ringing College in my hometown. I was totally blind to the fact art an unusual career until  high school and my friends started talking about what their parents do – I viewed them as teachers, and that art was their primary focus. I was always encouraged by them to make things, but I felt shy since they were both thoughtful and fierce creatives respectively. As a teenager, I wanted to rebel – so my idea of that was becoming a forensic analyst or veterinarian, but art was a constant in our house. I was always drawing or doing something without their influence, so choosing to pursue that felt natural. I grew up with the privilege of watching my parents problem-solve and balance jobs with their own practices so the idea of tackling this stuff didn’t feel impossible; They were able to survive and raised me. With time I’ve grown to appreciate what I learned from them infinitely.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I make works on paper that incorporate text consisting of fragmented thoughts and questions I pose to myself, or someone in mind. The work I make now started as a gut response to a professor Kevin Dean, whom I deeply respected, passing away. I had a conversation with him several months prior to his passing that I revisit often. It made me reflect on the conversations I didn’t get to have with my own father, Leslie Lerner, a painter who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2005. The drawings began as my desire to speak with both of them, and other figures in my life who passed in a short period of time that year and make something for them. This has expanded more over time and I see loss reflected in everything now. The rope and chain in some works are an illustrated wish for control. But language, and how it’s used, is slippery. I am usually thinking of the way something is said, and how it can transform over time if you play it over in your mind. My drawings dance between a wish for definement and trying to escape it.


If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
COVID has limited many things here in NYC, but my favorite thing to do in the spring and all summer is to ride the East River Ferry. I have a childhood friend visiting in June and we plan to get frozen Pina Coladas and tan on the roof. I’m planning to take her on some walking tours of the Met and Greenwood Cemetary.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give thanks to Chie Fueki, Amy Talluto, Miranda Burns, Alana Johnson, Sara Ludy, Addie Wagenknecht, Susanna Koetter, Judy Glantzman, Emilia Olsen, Rachel Kuzma, Corey Allen, my mutuals in the group chat, my seriously amazing coworkers, and everyone who’s bothered to check in on me over the past 18 months. I am endlessly grateful.

Website: https://natalielerner.com/

Instagram: @natalie_lerner

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