We recently had the chance to connect with Gregory Beylerian and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Gregory, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
At first, this question might sound philosophical or poetic, but for me, it touches the very core of my life journey. From my earliest memories, I was drawn into a realm of creative play, a space of pure immersion where I would intuitively interact with materials, take things apart, and reassemble them in new forms. The end results could be called sculptures, paintings, assemblages but to me, they were simply expressions of following an inner pulse, like chasing a light that pulled me forward through imagination and curiosity.
Over time, my entire life became an exploration of this phenomenon, this creative spark that seemed to guide everything. I’ve spent years cultivating awareness and developing daily practices that help me stay aligned with that inner dynamic. It’s become clear to me that this force is both the source of my creativity and the compass that leads me through uncertainty, manifestation, innovation, and overcome challenges with astonishing precision and flow.
In the end, I realized that this “creative spark” is really the essence of who I am, and when I trust it completely, I can walk with the freedom of a wanderer while remaining firmly rooted in the path of my purpose. What I now share with others is the understanding that this capacity isn’t unique to me; it’s an innate birthright of every human being. With a few simple, consistent practices, anyone can reconnect with that same inner light and walk their path with clarity and creative freedom.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Gregory Beylerian, and I was born and raised in New York City, surrounded by wild artists, creative energy, and parents who gave me freedom to explore life in New York City. In those days, there was no cel phones, no helicopter parenting, we were free in a way that is hard to imagine in today’s culture. I was extremely shy as a child, that dynamic opened the door to deep inner adventure and imagination. My early fascinations, from pyrotechnics to my love for music, feminine beauty, and the dream of riding Harley choppers, all became threads woven into my adult life and creative journey.
Today, I live and create in Los Angeles, where my wife and I run a multidisciplinary creative studio with satellite connections to New York and Paris. Our studio can be seen as a creative trinity, three interconnected realms of exploration:
1. Pure Creative Exploration: This is my personal practice, where I follow the spark of creativity wherever it leads, unrestricted by medium or genre. Through this process, I create artworks that span photography, painting, sculpture, poetry, music and innovative technologies like virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, etc.. Each work of art is created by way of an active meditative process, that reveals through artistic expression deeper layers of unfolding consciousness. Perhaps the most recognized body of works is my ongoing series “The Painted Nude”. These are commissioned figurative art shoots which embody the principles I speak of and transform the human form into a sacred expression of contemporary art. – www.paintednude.com
2. Studio Beylerian: Co-directed with my wife, Jude, this is a unique service we provide, where we harness the power of creativity to help bring the dreams of others to life. We collaborate with international brands, organizations, bespoke companies, startups and individuals who are looking for creative support. We give each relationship a heart centered experience that nurtures visions into reality and solves challenges along the way. This touches a diverse range of activity from humanitarian projects, IOS Apps, Metaverse projects, advertising, fashion, installations, immersive experiences, the possibilities are endless. – www.beylerianstudio.com
3. Education & Empowerment: The third aspect focuses on sharing what I’ve learned about nurturing creativity from 35 years of practice through talks, workshops and writing. This work centers on “Love and Truth”, a practice of alignment with the inner creative spark, to live a more inspired, heart centered life. – www.loveandtruth.com
In essence, my work, whether through art, consulting, or teaching, is all about exploring and expressing the infinite creative spark that exists within each of us. I believe creativity is not a privilege or talent reserved for a few; it’s a natural force within every human being, waiting to be awakened and lived fully.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who taught you the most about work?
Who Taught You Most About Work?
That would be my father. Our relationship used to be complicated, perhaps the classic archetype of father and son. For much of my early life, it was difficult to be around him. He was intense, unpredictable, and often spoke his opinions before listening. But what makes this story remarkable is the transformation I’ve witnessed in him. Today, he’s like a gentle, Zen-like master, peaceful, heart-centered, and full of love. He now showers me with compliments and expresses pride in ways I could never have imagined. I grew up just hearing what felt like negative criticism at every step with little affection. Seeing such a profound shift in a person has been one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. And the foundational years of challenge with him would become the greatest teaching because it sprouted my own inner development work.
In his prime, my father was a force of nature, a visionary leader who knew how to bring dreams into reality. He used to say, “Great ideas are cheap, a dime a dozen. What’s rare is the ability to make them real.” That lesson stayed with me. He taught me perseverance, to keep going even when there’s no sign of relief, and to hold an inner compass grounded in integrity, to never manipulate or take advantage of others in business or in life.
He lived a fascinating life filled with excitement, creativity, design, and vision. As a collector, he had an intuitive eye for art. The works he collected in the 1980s became celebrated decades later, a testament to his taste and foresight. In many ways, I realize that my own devotion to art and creativity was a way of reaching toward him, for his affection, toward the heart of what he loved most.
Today, I continue that lineage, carrying forward the baton he passed to me, but through the lens perspective of my heart as an artist. From him, I inherited not only a strong work ethic but also the understanding that the truest form of work is devotion, the act of giving your whole heart to what you create.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
I love this question because it points to something fundamental about living life well. From a young age, we’re taught to avoid suffering and on the surface, that makes perfect sense. Why would anyone willingly choose discomfort or pain? Yet, as I’ve discovered, avoiding suffering can also mean avoiding the very experiences that shape our strength, depth, and authenticity.
After earning my bachelor’s and then my master’s degrees in Milan, Italy, I began my professional journey working for the visionary artist and designer Gaetano Pesce, and later for Disney in Los Angeles. But after a few years, I felt a deeper calling, an intuitive pull from my heart to follow the path of an independent artist. So I took the leap of faith and left the safety of a steady paycheck for the uncertainty of creative freedom.
What I didn’t realize then was that this leap would initiate me into one of life’s greatest teachers: suffering through the unknown. The anxiety of not knowing how rent would be paid, the lack of external security, these were my daily companions. For nearly 20 years, including many of them with my wife by my side, I lived without guarantees. It was both terrifying and transformative.
On that journey of uncertainty, I discovered something extraordinary. When I stopped resisting fear and instead chose to trust my intuition, to trust the intelligence of my heart, I began to experience a deeper alignment with life itself, that spark I spoke of as a child. What once felt like suffering became a process of self awakening. I started to see that creativity is not just about making art, it’s a living intelligence, a force that solves, heals, and innovates when we surrender to it with love and truth.
That realization evolved with my life and my work as the very experiment to implement these principles as a living practice. It’s why a third of my studio’s focus is now dedicated to education, to helping others access this same inner compass (the soul’s GPS). I’ve learned that suffering, when met with awareness, becomes a doorway. It teaches us how to transform fear into love, and that transformation from my experience, is where true creativity, and true freedom, flowers.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
The Painted Nude commissions, where I merge photography and painting to create contemporary figurative artworks for those who wish to have this one of a kind experience. This has been one continuous project of my professional artistic life after 20 plus years, that continues to inspire me from the depth of my soul. However what has been with me since childhood and that I expect will remain with me until my final breath, is what I have been referring to as “Love & Truth.”
I want to clarify that Love & Truth is not a belief system, ideology, or philosophy. It’s a set of simple principles designed to awaken creativity through daily Pratice of self alignment. Although I couldn’t name it as such until a transformative experience I had in 1997, those words, love and truth, capture the essence of the practice: the art of merging dream and reality through alignment with the heart. I know well the challenges of following the heart, it is the scariest journey to take, yet the most fulfilling in my view. I used my life as an experiment, to see if following the intuitive spark into the unknown would guide me to live my hearts visions, it did and does… So now I do my best to be as supportive and helpful as possible to those who can relate to this and feel called to follow the heart.
For as long as I can remember, my deepest desire has been to live from the freedom of authentic expression, to create from the heart without restriction. How to overcome the overwhelming, crippling power of fear that can stop us in our tracks and redirect our life out of heart alignment. What I didn’t realize when I was younger is that pursuing this path would not only liberate my own life, but also be beneficial for society because we become more supportive to the greater whole.
This work is not about collecting knowledge; it’s about cultivating oneself with simple daily practices that bring the body, heart, and mind into alignment, into an open, relaxed, and alert state that allows creative intelligence to flow effortlessly. It’s what I call the flow state, where inspiration, action, and awareness merge into graceful movement with the environment and life.
I’m committed to refining and sharing these practices so that anyone interested, can have access to this simple practice of creative alignment. I feel it is our human birthright, and supports living a truly fulfilled life. Why such essential inner alignment education is absent from our traditional schooling system remains a mystery to me, and one of the challenges I hope to help change.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
I love this question because it speaks deeply to my own experience. For the first half of my life, my father was my greatest critic. Today, he’s my biggest supporter, not because I changed, but because he did. His perception of life evolved, and with it, the way he saw me. That realization taught me something profound: people’s opinions are reflections of how they see life, not of who we are.
I witnessed this clearly during my gallery openings. One person would point to a painting and say, “This is your best work,” while moments later another would look at the same piece and say, “This is your weakest.” Who’s right? Art, like life, is entirely subjective. Even my own preferences don’t determine what will resonate with others, many times, collectors have chosen works I never imagined anyone would select.
In my early years, I didn’t receive much praise. I wasn’t the prodigy or the standout. I often felt misunderstood. Yet through it all, there was a pulse within me, an intuition guiding me forward. I followed it, even when no one else could see where it was leading, I was and still can be judged as being foolish or radical. There was no YouTube, no roadmap of success for the artist to follow. In fact the data being pushed was that only 3% of artists live from doing what they love.
Looking back, that absence of validation was a blessing. It taught me to go inward, practice trust, to follow my own inner compass, the heart. By walking into the unknown while nurturing a clear mind and open heart, I explore and discover my abundance and potential. This is the outcome of practicing daily alignment with who I really am.
To give everything your best without praise is, to me, a sacred act. It is devotion in its purest form: to create, to live, and to love guided by the quiet truth within, not by the applause of the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gregorybeylerian.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorybeylerian/
- Twitter: https://x.com/beylerian
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gregory.beylerian
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GregoryBeylerian
Image Credits
All images / photos by Gregory Beylerian
