Mixed-media and textile fine artist Brittany Kiertzner joins us this week at Fiber Talk a podcast interview discussing methodology and meaning. Her work in abstract embroidery transcends the boundaries of traditional stitching, creating a world of imaginative and evocative designs. Through a dynamic interplay of woven threads, Brittany’s work is influenced by traditional Mohawk splint basket making and subversion of materials through repurposing and synthesizing the past. Kiertzner exhibits regularly at the Ahmad Shariff Gallery and other art houses and keeps us a steady stream of creative art while raising three children under the age of five. Visit her various online channels to further explore her art.–Beth and Gary
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Transcript Text:
0:13
welcome back I'm Gary Parr and I'm Beth
0:16
Elliot and you're listening to Fiber
0:18
Talk the twice weekly podcast for needle
0:21
work artists our artist this week
0:23
Britany Kiertzner of Britney Kiertzner Fine Art
0:26
Brittany
0:27
welcome hi I'm here all right uh oh boy
0:32
this uh this artwork is is fun I was
0:36
fascinated and then when I noticed you
0:37
were using zip ties it's like wait a
0:39
minute what's she
0:41
doing this abstract Textile Art but
0:46
there's clearly an art background in you
0:49
is is it formal art training or are you
0:52
just a natural
0:53
artist uh probably a mix of both I do
0:58
have Fine Art degree went to Fullerton
1:01
Cal State Fullerton and and a few junior
1:05
colleges before that yeah what was Art
1:08
always your plan at least from what you
1:10
know family has explained like just I've
1:14
been working making art like since I was
1:18
little i' you know now as an adult I've
1:20
been given all these uh childhood
1:24
drawings and even embroidery work
1:27
that I did very young with my grandparents
1:31
uh my grandma's teaching me how to sew
1:33
and how to work in embroidery uh for a
1:36
very young age my parents buying me
1:39
embroidery kits you
1:41
know all those pattern seeking things
1:44
that you do um when you're child yeah so
1:48
yes uhuh okay so it's been in your blood
1:51
from day one then yes yeah so
1:56
obviously your grandma uh artistic
1:58
creative your mother too
2:00
uh my mother
2:01
supportive oh yeah so she would say
2:05
she's
2:06
supportive but uh but not uh not crafty
2:11
or anything she has yeah that's another
2:15
thing um but yeah I have I have a my uh
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paternal grandmother actually a number
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of uh great grandmas and aunts on that
2:28
side um that are very interested in
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craft traditional craft as well um
2:34
because they're Mohawk
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Iroquois oh that's so that's where the
2:39
basket weaving so the oh okay I see when
2:43
you when I you had showed the
2:44
example of Mohawk Iroquois basket weaving I
2:47
wasn't quite sure how that fit into the
2:49
picture so that's the that's the history
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then yes they're uh very interested in
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in those sorts of craft but also you
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know American uh craft as well like you
3:03
know embroidery and things like that
3:05
knitting uh
3:08
crocheting too as well yeah so did you
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learn how to do the um to make baskets
3:14
from your family
3:16
then no I didn't um I would say uh
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there's a lot of that on our around us
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my Grandma um collects a mohawk baskets so
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I just kind of grew up with them all
3:29
over the house she had I don't know if
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she has all of them still but she had
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like hundreds of them at one point I
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have a number of them too that have been
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passed down they're kind of like
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important sorts of things that you get
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like when you get married or they're
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like important gifts to give baskets so
3:49
your grandmother makes them or no she
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doesn't make them my grandma um my dad's
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mom uh
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she uh knits crochet
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it does
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embroidery she likes to do cross-stitch a
4:05
lot cross stitching on
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blankets I have a lot of those kind of
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things um my grandmother her and my
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great grandma her mother um did a lot of
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embroidery too I have samples of her
4:19
work and I actually have her
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um it's hard to explain but it's it's
4:26
like a pen cushion the Mohawk way of
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making a pin cushion is to like have the
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cushion set inside a mohawk basket and
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so I have my great grandmother's pin
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cushion
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baskets and they're made in this
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traditional sort of way you know like
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the black ash and the sweet grass woven
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oh you must send a photo yeah oh yeah
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definitely they're they're um pretty
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like standard like splint baskets made
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out of those uh traditional
5:00
materials yeah but just have something
5:02
from your great-grandmother that that
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makes it very special I think yes yeah
5:09
yeah and all those things were handmade
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too yeah wow great that's so cool to
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have that history the art obviously uh
5:19
in you right out of the gate did when
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you went to uh school to get an art
5:24
degree what was your intent painter
5:28
drawing
5:30
yeah I would say it's been hard to
5:32
nail me down in one medium I think I've
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sort of always been like mixed media
5:38
because I do a lot I have like a
5:42
strong drive to always be making work so
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I'm always doing sort of things
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simultaneously like even while I you see
5:52
on my account like while I'm doing my
5:55
fiber paintings I'm also like drawing
5:58
and
6:00
um and painting other things that I
6:03
might not show the world it's kind of
6:05
sort of my process I I like to think
6:08
that like if I'm spending a lot of time
6:10
in the abstract that I have to do
6:12
something on the side that's like going
6:14
to hone my eye so I'll Drew like a
6:18
really detailed line drawing of some
6:20
sort like I like to draw pictures
6:22
actually of all of my artist
6:26
friends I have lot of portfolios of
6:28
those sorts of things that I don't uh
6:31
that are just for me really I think it
6:34
trains my hand and my eye so I wondered
6:38
about that because uh the work that you
6:41
show is very very abstract and then
6:45
you know I wonder if as an abstract
6:47
artist that's all you do but no you
6:50
don't you need the variety then right
6:52
right so do you keep us daily Sketchbook
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habit then I don't know if I'd say it's
6:56
daily but it's pretty regular so how did
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you see yourself uh doing it as a
7:02
full-time is it is it a full-time uh job
7:05
if you will that your career that you
7:08
your art
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or yeah it's my career um it's uh been a
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sort of slow process buildup to this
7:18
point um and it's still in you know
7:22
still building I would say especially
7:24
this last year a number of the years I
7:27
wasn't on social media and I just been
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you know making work I've been showing
7:34
work in like the gallery setting since
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about 2007 just not like posting it you
7:43
know
7:45
online yeah which is the way the world
7:48
works now I suppose so that's why um
7:51
I've been sort of making these process
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videos across different platforms more
7:57
recently so then it's it's create art to
8:00
sell or commission work or both I would
8:04
say it's mainly create art to sell but
8:07
also to create
8:11
art yeah I think it boils down to like I
8:16
going to make work whether or not it
8:18
sells right but
8:21
um yeah that's the artist right
8:24
there yeah you have to create yes I have
8:26
made some commissions certainly overall
8:29
these years but um typically it's like
8:32
difficult to kind of make commissions I
8:34
think because sort of the nature of what
8:37
I'm doing is uh
8:40
spontaneous and
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intuitive and I can't like necessarily
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guarantee that I will have the same
8:48
vision as what the collector
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has so do you play music or do you just
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get an emotion you feel like okay okay
8:59
that I'm going to start here how do you
9:01
start your
9:02
work I think it's like always sort of
9:07
um in my mind actually okay um I have uh
9:13
three young children uh five and under I
9:16
have a yeah so I have a I have a I have
9:18
a five-year-old and I have two-year-old
9:22
twins so you're busy I'm very busy and
9:26
so while I'm shuffling them around and
9:29
doing all those things I'm thinking
9:32
about what next step I want to take on
9:35
the work that
9:38
day so do you set up a do you set up a
9:41
time then because with small
9:44
children it you know they can
9:47
become everything where you don't have
9:50
time to yourself so do you have a set
9:51
time like in the morning or in the
9:52
evening and say well now's my time to
9:55
work oh yes yeah um so um I do lose a I
10:01
would say probably a fair amount of
10:02
sleep um with you know making certain
10:06
sacrifices to do this uh work I uh get
10:10
up very early in the morning most days
10:13
to make work about 4:30 in the morning I
10:17
also utilize nap time things like that I
10:20
am I definitely prioritize as you'll see
10:22
like of course on my platforms like I
10:26
am pretty much uh I set aside time every
10:29
single day always and I've done this for
10:32
a long
10:33
time great long
10:37
yep yeah I think it's important when
10:39
you're a young mom to take that time um
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to yeah it's just I I think a lot of
10:46
people like at least people I know
10:48
personally spend a lot of time like
10:50
watching TV it's just it's like choices
10:53
right like my choice is instead of like
10:57
watching TV or doing something like that
10:59
I'd rather make work so do you feel more
11:01
creative like early in the morning is
11:03
that a good I mean like I'm more
11:05
creative in the morning I'm much more
11:08
than later at night so that's
11:10
where my question is coming from yeah oh
11:13
yes um yeah I would say I'm definitely a
11:15
morning
11:16
person yeah but also the quiet of like
11:19
the home the atmosphere is helpful I
11:22
think right so do you have a a
11:26
studio room or a room where you can go to
11:29
to escape to do
11:31
this yes I have like sort of two Studio
11:34
spaces I have like my home studio uh
11:38
room that I use to make work and also U
11:42
film as much as I do I think and then I
11:46
also um have a studio space in um
11:50
Claremont um at my gallery
11:54
representation as
11:57
well so you can do that too
12:03
yeah I don't know though like
12:05
having that energy also like sort of is
12:08
honed I think in like the work it um
12:12
drives you or at least does me um it
12:16
helps me like I don't know seeing how
12:20
like their young bodies like are
12:25
interested in like material also maybe
12:27
is coming
12:29
into my work like how I can sort of
12:32
picture things so the work that you been
12:35
that you show on uh on your Instagram
12:38
account and on your website the uh mixed
12:42
media um but
12:44
with uh thread yarn wire zip ties you
12:50
name it how did that whole concept come
12:53
to be is that uh just had a a vision one
12:57
day or is that an evolution through uh
13:00
through some time I think it's a mixture
13:02
of all those things probably also
13:05
Evolution but I think I've always been
13:07
really interested in exploring like
13:10
critical materials and exploring how
13:14
like critical materials like reflect my
13:16
culture um my personal history how like
13:20
a wide range of materials can be like
13:23
intertwined juxtaposed it's like sort of
13:26
a metaphor I think from my background
13:29
I there like uh repurposing things too
13:33
like um just exploring
13:37
like things beyond like imitation and
13:40
like pattern seeking a I know a lot of
13:44
embroidery and fiber work is is at least
13:48
like in traditional craft very pattern
13:50
seeking and I'm really interested in
13:52
like and moving away from like that
13:54
practical
13:56
sense like my aesthetics I think are
13:58
more abstracted just because I'm looking
14:02
to like carry social and personal
14:05
messages so when you start one of these
14:08
uh abstract pieces is there a plan
14:12
laid out on a piece of paper in your
14:14
Sketchbook or do you just pick up
14:17
a piece of whatever it is you use
14:20
for ground or background and just
14:23
let your hands go and see what comes
14:26
out exactly that um I it's like a very
14:30
slow process of building everything and
14:34
then like once I have sort of what I
14:36
feel like as like a a framework I begin
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weaving the fibers on
14:43
top and almost like a splint basketry
14:46
kind of way okay I can see that I can
14:49
see that because um looking at your work
14:52
you know you see how it you've woven
14:55
things in and out and then underneath
14:58
though you have
14:59
it seems like you sometimes have paint
15:01
right so you like having a background
15:03
layer of color instead of using just
15:06
like the blank canvas right yeah I've
15:10
I've been experimenting more recently
15:12
with paint um on as the
15:15
ground I love painting as well so when I
15:20
can incorporate that I like trying to
15:23
right yeah it feels like I'm
15:25
synthesizing something new that's
15:28
different the thing that I think both
15:30
Beth and I noted watching the little
15:33
video clips that you you'd posted is
15:36
that uh the work is I mean in
15:39
relative terms quite physical as opposed
15:41
to traditional embroidery where you sit
15:43
in a chair and move your hands and
15:46
nothing else I mean you are up on your
15:47
feet and working both sides of that
15:49
thing um yes yeah so yeah I like the
15:55
physicality of what I'm doing right now
15:57
yes and I like that it sort of requires
15:59
me to stand it's funny how like you
16:02
think of like run the runner who's like
16:04
running miles and like sort of working
16:07
through like their thoughts it sort of
16:10
feels like that but also the rhythmic of
16:13
it like instead of the foot pattern of
16:15
running it's like the punch and the the
16:19
pull of the
16:22
thread yeah so take us through the
16:25
materials that you use
16:27
because it seems like very little is
16:30
off limits to you uh is it yarn thread
16:33
string what do you dye it uh yeah I use
16:39
the variety of things I like I would
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say the vast majority is like the basic
16:45
sort of cotton DMC or also silk uh
16:50
embroidery thread is like the large part
16:52
of what I'm doing but I also do use um
16:56
yarn uh wax
16:59
cord I like to repurpose textiles like
17:02
Fabrics um that I might cut up into
17:06
strips and use as a another form of
17:11
fiber I really like achieving like
17:14
straightness like straight lines rather
17:16
than like I think a lot of embroider is
17:19
very curved um and like round um and I
17:25
really want to achieve more of like sort
17:27
of the linear
17:29
overlapping woven look so I do it with a
17:34
lot of straight lines yeah it's
17:36
interesting to see what you're able
17:37
to do with uh basically yeah just long
17:42
straight lines and the way you
17:44
interweave them and uh connect the
17:47
colors and then at some point you said
17:50
you were experimenting with wire how
17:52
that's got to be a challenge just
17:55
to handle the
17:56
material yes I using
17:59
wire um as well and that's fun I um my
18:03
recent sculptures that I've been making
18:05
um For an upcoming exhibition I fill out
18:10
an um
18:12
galvanized uh wire um these wire frames
18:16
and then I uh sew the fabric like
18:20
repurposed Fabrics on the top and then
18:25
I've been Plastering those and then I do
18:27
the embroidery on them and some of it
18:30
you have these wooden stands that
18:32
you're working on to hold the piece uh
18:34
those look like something you had to
18:36
designed to meet your needs
18:38
or well they're actually
18:41
painting easel oh they are oh I have a
18:44
variety of easel that I use yeah the
18:49
different certain ones I think sort of
18:51
fit like the purpose of what I'm trying
18:55
to achieve
18:56
easier um and some don't like some
18:59
of them have a lot of like one of them I
19:02
have has like these knobs on the bottom
19:06
that can kind of be a nuisance if I'm
19:07
not like careful I can get the wires or
19:10
or even the fiber like wrapped around
19:12
them
19:14
so I have my favorites that I use yeah
19:17
and that was the other thing I
19:18
wondered as you're doing creating
19:21
these pieces is these long strands that
19:24
you're using uh a lot of it seems like
19:27
there's an awful lot or would be an
19:29
awful lot of uh care to make sure you
19:31
don't get things all tangled up there is
19:33
a lot of that sort of nuisance to this
19:37
aspect like of work like um my biggest
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like issue is like getting like knots
19:45
like embroidery fiber like loves to get
19:48
tangled into knots
19:50
right yeah so I battle knots a lot I'm
19:54
actually an expert now in releasing
19:57
knots
19:59
bring me your knots and I will I will
20:02
untangle it for
20:04
you yeah we know we all know about those
20:07
knots and yeah always on the backside 20
20:11
stitches ago and oh gez really yep oh
20:16
yeah yes sometimes it's easier to just
20:20
keep on
20:21
going yes you mentioned about uh Gallery
20:26
representation and uh uh exhibitions is
20:31
that kind of your goal day to day is to
20:34
create pieces for the gallery how what
20:37
is what is your uh Arrangement there in
20:40
terms of displaying your art right
20:42
now I mean I did have a recent solo show
20:46
um at my gallery that I'm represented
20:49
with right now um the Ahmad Shariff Gallery
20:52
in Claremont California I also like
20:56
participate in a lot of going
20:59
exhibitions and just events at the
21:02
gallery Claremont in downtown
21:05
claremont art scene. Its um like a local hub for
21:10
artists um and we're very supportive of
21:13
each
21:14
other there's a wide range of artists
21:17
making work my solo I had a mix of you
21:22
know my embroidery like I like to think
21:25
of them as like paintings so my
21:26
embroidery paintings and then my mixed
21:29
media paintings and sculpture as well
21:33
and an
21:35
installation but yeah I have ongoing
21:37
things with um that Gallery um I also
21:41
I'm you know represented on Arty
21:44
arts.com
21:47
and I um I'm in a group exhibition the
21:52
threads that bind at the Brea Gallery
21:56
well it's hosted by the Brea gallery was
21:58
curated by um Museo art and culture
22:03
Museum and so I'm in that exhibition
22:06
right
22:08
now and I also have an upcoming
22:11
exhibition um early next year in the
22:14
spring at the um sassy museum of art
22:18
that I'll be having a solo exhibition
22:19
for as well wow you're actively showing
22:22
all several places that's great do you
22:24
create for an exhibition or do you just
22:27
keep creating art and then when it's
22:30
time for an exhibition select what you
22:33
want to show well I'm always making work
22:37
and I would say typically I have like a
22:40
sort of uh sense of when uh this is
22:44
becoming a body of work like cohesive
22:48
translating into a cohesive body and um
22:53
at least in the last while I've it's
22:56
been more of like I'm work and then
22:59
simultaneously I'm having people um
23:02
reach out to me and ask me to exhibit
23:05
the
23:07
work that sort of is the process at the
23:10
moment yeah
23:13
okay it see it seemed like and you maybe
23:16
I'm reading too much into it but you one
23:18
of the things that we have discussed
23:20
with other guests is the whole
23:24
approach to art that if it isn't
23:26
painting sculpture drawing or
23:28
photography it's not real
23:30
art and uh I like that you refer to your
23:34
art as
23:36
painting uh do you find that your
23:40
obviously your art is accepted uh as
23:43
your textile basically Textile Art is
23:46
accepted in in the general art community
23:49
so you don't get that that
23:52
resistance no I think it might be sort
23:57
of the Community as well like um I would
24:00
say in La there are a lot of textile
24:04
artists and um it is fine art um it is
24:08
not like necessarily craft although I
24:12
suppose there's probably a
24:14
blurring um at times um but just because
24:18
it's the medium that would used as like
24:22
traditional craft I would say the
24:24
practice is uh and the result is finally
24:29
art oh yeah we I mean we agree 100%
24:33
that it's art there's no question about
24:35
it uh but uh we run into one more than
24:38
one where there's clear separation in
24:41
the minds of
24:43
some yeah I think the textile uh art
24:48
community um largely is centered in and
24:53
making uh the material medium into
24:57
new contemporary context like
25:01
explaining you know their own
25:04
personal um
25:05
narratives mine happens to
25:08
be um at the moment centered around like
25:11
empowerment against adversity sort of
25:14
like unraveling like personal cultural
25:18
history I would say I'm really
25:19
interested in like creating something
25:21
new but there's also sort of A
25:24
disruption and subversion of the
25:26
materials like
25:28
working in this mixed media and textile
25:30
format I'm
25:31
synthesizing sort you know the material
25:34
like and the past it feels really like
25:37
regenerative it feels
25:39
authentic sort of intrinsic too like
25:43
just because you know now like with well
25:47
technology like um Ai and um there's a
25:51
lot of like coping and um yes it's
25:56
like hard to tell
25:58
like where the hand sort of takes place
26:02
in the
26:02
work um I'm almost like driven uh right
26:06
now to make work that's like difficult
26:09
to take pictures of or even videos like
26:13
I've had a lot of people tell me that
26:17
standing in front of it is different
26:20
than seeing the picture of it and that's
26:22
sort of like my drive um if you will
26:26
yeah we've have been having discussions
26:27
lately about copyrights
26:29
and uh yeah basically theft of Art and
26:35
yeah it's um gets easier every day yeah
26:40
frustrating
26:41
yeah I think it's just um
26:45
just differences like I understand
26:49
like um the sort of social pressures or
26:53
like reasons why people make prints
26:57
versus only Originals um I think just
27:00
like for my purpose like it's just
27:03
something that I um really interested in
27:06
for my work is just having it be solely
27:09
like original so do you feel your art
27:13
evolving uh with time and that if we
27:16
come back to you in a year you you're
27:18
likely doing something completely
27:20
different or are you still really in the
27:23
middle of exploring this uh this current
27:26
form yeah I think if you went forward in
27:31
his you know forward in time I think you
27:33
would still see you'd still see my voice
27:36
like you would still see like it would
27:39
still be recognizable as
27:42
mine um it just might have changed like
27:48
slightly you know in a parents right I'm
27:51
always like sort of challenging
27:54
myself to um just like experience
28:00
the creation differently but I think
28:03
there are a lot of s similar sort of
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forms and patterns in all of it I'm just
28:08
really I'm really interested in like
28:10
finding new ways to sort of achieve like
28:13
movement
28:14
and the like linear sort of woven
28:19
aspect it's funny because if you look at
28:22
my paintings even from years and years
28:24
back it's like always there like I
28:27
really interested
28:29
in in like overlapping lines for some
28:32
reason and so I I will probably continue
28:36
to find new ways to do that yeah
28:40
you express an awful lot with those
28:42
over overlapping lines so um yeah
28:47
so then uh you mentioned a couple of
28:49
exhibits is that pretty much what lies
28:51
ahead for you is creating art for uh
28:56
exhibits yeah I have a few exhibitions
29:01
planned um I have some things also that
29:05
sound like they're in the works as well
29:08
um so I'll continue to keep busy as I
29:11
always am yeah y all right well Brittany
29:15
thank you so much this is It's just
29:18
absolutely fascinating art and how
29:20
you achieve it is fun to watch so uh
29:24
thanks for sharing with us we
29:25
appreciate it great thank you for having
29:28
me on your show all right thanks and
29:30
thanks everyone for
29:49
listening
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