Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Barrett.
Brooke, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Well, I’ve always felt strongly connected to the arts in multiple ways. As a soft spoken, introverted child I played piano, did ballet, and made drawings/paintings of faces and characters on every type of surface. I have been creating since I was 2. It was written in my soul to be an Artist and I knew that even when I was young. I was blessed to have parents who nurtured the creativity they saw in me at a young age.
My art started to develop more going into high school. I took art in high school but I was self-taught because my teacher never took the time to help me compared to the other students. I worked more with the female face and flowers and making things look pretty but I still had no understanding of how to properly illustrate a developed concept.
Looking back at my art then compared to now makes me laugh a little. Just knowing how much it’s developed and changed in my four and a half years of college so far and what it’s taken to get to this point.
I moved away from home when I graduated (with the support of my parents) and started art school at Kennesaw State University. I came in with the attitude that I need to be the best and everything I make needs to be perfect. That brought on a huge amount of stress on me and how I produced work. I still wasn’t sure who I was and what exactly my art was meant to be. In 2016, I had dealt with the loss of a family member and after that point something in me switched. I always battled some amount of anxiety since childhood but, then it became severe. Anxiety, social anxiety and major depression to the point where I almost decided to end my life several times throughout 2016-2017. I didn’t know who I was or what I was worth for a long time.
As a result, in fall of 2016 my style began to develop as something bigger than what I thought capable of. I started creating art centered around different themes such as: Isolation, Anxiety, loss of identity, Spiritual blindness.
Not so much on what is pretty anymore. But the internal dark, grimy struggles that everyone has had at some point in life. Currently, my work takes these themes tempered with hopefulness form the core of my art.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I work with several mediums such as: oil paint, India ink, graphite, and watercolor. I paint digitally and have an extensive knowledge of the process, but generally do so for commissions, specializing in painting with oil on oval-shaped wood. I also create illustrations with different ink/ brush pens on moleskine paper as well. I am currently working with pen ink, India ink and dura-lar and layering faces and highly saturated colored ink.
My process I begin with thumbnails or an under sketch with graphite or various other dry media I have access to; however, when I work on a black-painted wood piece I use a white colored pencil. I then add the wet media. The amount of sessions each piece needs varies, but most are completed in two to three sittings.
I frequently paint/draw faces emerging from an oppressive, dark, void-like atmosphere. I find inspiration for my work from my personal experiences or from the experiences of those close to me. My goal in this is to show the moments where loneliness/depression/self-hate or whatever darkness, tried to consume someone but the light that was always in that dark place frees the person from the dark and brings them back to light. The faces I paint often look exhausted or jaded, as if that darkness has taken the life out of them.
I hope the viewers can see something through the work that is beyond what has physically been painted. However, I am only the artist and whatever the Spirit within me wants to communicate to the viewer is beyond anything that I can do.
In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
I believe many artists struggle with finding themselves, and the confidence to be who they were always meant to be. I’ve seen numerous up and coming artists only make what’s easiest/quickest for them instead of challenging themselves. I don’t see people reaching for the stars very often. I and many others have experience the difficulty of finding our style, purpose in art, without feeling as if we are copying anyone. There is nothing new under the sun but, there is always a way to make work that shines through the sea of art that exists.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I have a friend who’s making a website for me currently. That will be done soon. I post art updates regularly on Instagram: bbarrettart and Twitter: brookenedart.
All of my work is purchasable through DM on my social media accounts and I am open for commissions.
I always show work at Kibbie Galleries’ South show and Christmas show. I put work in other galleries throughout the year in the Atlanta/Marietta area depending on what shows are happening. I will be entering work in to the Show of Heads exhibit at the Limner Gallery in New York.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 7706522965
- Email: brookeski61@gmail.com
- Instagram: bbarrettart
- Twitter: brookenedartist
Image Credit:
taken by: the artist
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