Gabrielle Despaigne is a self-taught Afro-Cuban artist based out of North Carolina. She has an interest in traditional art mediums along with film & animation. Although she is still finding her specific niche, she has a fascination with fantasy, science fiction, and nature. She hopes to explore “nerdy” African-American experiences along with expressing racial trauma that comes from ostrazation. She is currently obsessed with drawing faces and creature based character design.
Despaigne graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a B.A. in Film Studies & Entrepreneurship. She is currently completing the necessary steps to pursue a graduate level degree. She spends most of her time completing freelance work and studying for her next steps in academia.
Why “Noirnicorn”?
I decided on the creative alias of Noirnicorn to represent my personality and the subject material I would like to focus on in my artwork. I chose Noirnicorn because it is a combination of the words "noir" and "unicorn".Noir fits me not just because I am an artist of Afro-Cuban descent, but also for my desire to explore stories and ideas that pertain the deeper and darker emotion. I love exploring trauma that comes from racial experience and most of my documentary pertains to social issues in some way. Noir is not a negative term, it can be used to describe subject matter that pertains to things people may have difficulty facing, but are truth. Black is also an amazing color. Black never goes out of style.
Unicorn is for my love of fantasy, mythical creatures, and creativity. I aspire to bring more interesting and fantasy themed creations to life, especially those that contain people of color as the subjects.