about the artist

Alexandra “Ali” Duboy is an NYC based painter and felt fiber artist.
Classically trained in acrylic and oil painting , but explorative in the multimedia world , particulaly felt fiber work. Her paintings begin with the body: figures caught mid-feeling, held inside washes of unsuspecting color. The ongoing series How I Felt With You — which gives her studio and brand its name — there exists a specific yet consistent theme tying everything together, infusing a certain meaning in any mediums she chooses.

on canvas, Ali captures the raw emotion of the vulnerable figure, leveraging intense colors to evoke even more emotion. of longining, grief, even bliss, pensiveness, solitude.

Her aim is to recreate a the personal experiences we do not get much exposure too because the depth of emotions is so often only experienced in solitude.

we usually experience intense emotions about another significant human in our lives, there are a few people we give that power to (voluntarily or involuntarily) , but oftentimes we process these feelings about other people, in the safety of solitude . For your most people the depth of these emotions is reserved for solitude.

that being said , an intense energy could be observed by a fly on the wall in these moments. Ali tries to capture exactly this snapshot , a window into a universally known feeling, a window into the collective experience that is of the utmost personal.

Her philosophy is that in theory a photos could not quite accomplish this expression of human emotion because photography often implies that there was an observer , and at the same token , her use of color and brushstroke is leveraged to impose this dreamlike quality.

Now onto her felting :

Her fiber practice extends the same instinct articulated above into the actual material. The beautiful thing about felt is that it is an ancient technique , so we feel connected to this method tat is so grounding and earthy intrinsic to its nature . again, the beauty comes in the layers of the colors you can get lost into. its like the fusion of healing skin , or some type of evolutionary biological process, very earthy but layered.

the final step felting process requires us to release our aggression. We must throw and slam the felt with force across the floor multiple times to finalize the fusing of the fibers. Truly trauma bonding in the most literal sense. as well. she tries to bring this crudeness into the fiber and development process as well. And dont even get me started when she needs to stab the felt with needles.

Ali also works by commission, especially on wedding portraits, special occasions, family members. send her the photograph you can't stop looking at, and she'll have that become an original painting.

For pricing, commissions, and custom gifts, reach out through the contact page or on Instagram at @howifeltwithyou.