VERMILION PARISH — In Abbeville’s countryside, 13-year-old Rylee Lemaire can often be found sitting out on her family’s porch, playing the accordion. She doesn’t just play music; she creates across disciplines. Carving, drawing, crafting—her hands are rarely still—already carving out a world of her own.
“Sometimes, I brush it off, but when I look at these ribbons and everything, I don’t tend to take too much pride in the awards,” she said. “The more important thing for me is the memories.”
She’s already earned several awards for her work, but Lemaire says art isn’t just a hobby—it’s a way to feel grounded.
“My world of arts and imagination, it’s sort of just been my way to cope with a lot of the problems I’ve had and pain,” she said. “I feel like I can make a world where I can be just myself in.”
Lemaire says that creative world has helped carry her through more than most people realize.
“Sometimes it does get a bit much and I have to stop and I’m like, everything’s moving at a million miles per hour, I need to breathe,” she said. “It’s hard, but I know I’ll always have the best people to pull me out of my problems when I need them.”
Still, the path to stability wasn’t easy.“I had a lot of families that were not really the best people,” she said. “They were very unkind and that taught me to keep my ways to myself.”
Those people—her adoptive family—came into her life at a critical time. Before she met them, Lemaire spent the first eight years of her life in and out of the foster care system.
“It’s scary, ’cause you never know who you’re gonna be with,” she said. “When I met this family, I was at the point where I was about to give up. I was tired, at my end—and you just come to these amazing people and I hope everyone can have that.”
It’s in that home—surrounded by encouragement and care—that Lemaire found the space to grow. She’s thriving in school, exploring new art forms, and building a sense of who she wants to become.
“I tend to isolate myself to get my thoughts together, and a lot of times when I’m doing that, I come to myself and I think really deeply about how much I’ve gone through. It’s given me the ability to take things and look deeper into them.”
Her carving, while impressive, is also hard work—something she was quick to demonstrate.
For her, the rhythm of creating is part of the healing process.
“It’s tiring of course,” she said, “but you can really get into a groove and sort of just take it and make it a part of you and put the process in you.”
Though she isn’t sure yet what she wants to do in the future, Rylee knows she’ll continue to build—through music, art, and connection.
“This is just where I’m gonna be happy,” she said. “And after so long… you know, when I was asked to get adopted I was like, if I’m not, what else would I do?”
Wherever life takes her next, Rylee Lemaire is already shaping it with her own two hands
