Art is Personal

 Whenever people see my art up close they ask me two questions: 1. How long does it take? 2. Where do you get your inspiration from?               

     The answer the first question is: long. Very long. I am a perfectionist, so each piece of paper needs to be the right shade. Shape. Weight. It needs to be seamless and perfectly jagged at the same time. So pieces can take days to weeks to months. What's important to me is not producing as many pieces as possible just to have a massive catalogue of work, but creating pieces that are exact manifestations of my intended vision, and have every inch of me scraped, cut, and glued to the T. 

     The answer to the second question is darkness. Darkness often evokes thoughts of sadness and pain, but darkness is also the parts of yourself that you don't speak out loud. Can't share with a stranger. Can only be released in whispers. On paper. With your hands and words and tears. And those things can be happy. And imperfect. And beautiful. It is stillness. Painting is the only thing that silences my stream of consciousness and allows me to just BE.

     I think the best art is the art that's hard to make. It's the painting that makes you cry at 3am. The poem that forces you to relive your toughest challenges. It digs deep. It begs for honesty. It exposes you to parts of yourself you didn't know existed, or have spent several lifetimes silencing. It claws, pulls, and scratches the most beautiful cuts into your skin, so deep its healing.

- Brittany M.