Emily Brown

What is your professional name?

My name is Emily Brown.

Where were you born and does that place still influence you?

I was born in Washington State, but I was only there for about a year and a half before I was whisked away by the army life. As a military brat, I never really settled anywhere. I never lived in the same house, let alone the same state, for more than a couple of years at a time, until I moved to North Carolina for the second time.

When people ask me where I am from, I have to do the stereotypical army-brat thing and ask, like, where I was born or where I lived the longest? and then promptly recite: I was born in Washington, then I moved to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, Arizona, Tennessee, California, and back to North Carolina. The place I was born has little to no influence on me, because it was never home and I never learned anything from the people there. In my experience, it is the people that influence you, not the place.

Where do you live now and how does that place influence you?

I have been living in North Carolina for about seven years now. As I said before, I believe that it is the people that influence me, and I have not been influenced very positively by these people. I find myself surrounded by people with no morals. No sense of right and wrong. People who refuse to do what is right when no one is watching. This has left me, an already cynical and critical individual, with a sour taste in my mouth. Perhaps it is a bit harsh of me to say that.

I have heard that areas outside of where I live are far more morally and ethically conscious. However, my experience here, with these people, has certainly painted a corrupt, lazy, and incompetent picture of the society I live in. And this picture is what is driving me to leave where I am living as quickly as I can in search of more like-minded people.

Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make a difference in your life?

My biggest supporters have always been my family, friends, and a selection of my professors in college. I think it was hard for my immediate family to be supportive at first. I did not exactly start going to college with any talent or skill in art, and my first few art classes were basically a crash course in skills that would have put me at an advantage, had I learned them before class.

My first drawings were horrid. But my family held back their doubt as much as they could. My skill improved over time and my family began to see the potential that I have and are much more supportive now that I am nearing the end of my B.A. degree program. My friends are always supportive, as friends usually are. I try to surround myself with like-minded individuals who can critique me to the best of their ability. Many of my friends are theatre majors, film majors, and fellow artists. As we are all creatives, this helps us build each other up throughout our college years. My best friend, who is my cousin, was probably by far my greatest supporter. I have had a select few university professors who have truly supported me. And they supported me by pushing me to be the best that I could be, without pushing me to do things as they would do it. I think that is a very important distinction to me to determine who was supportive and who was just doing their job.

When and how did you start making art?

I think I started like most people do. I drew a lot as a kid, and developed an interest as a teenager, but I never really pursued it until college. I started college with a desire to study art, but I was under the delusion that I wanted to get my degree in Psychology. Math and English came easy to me, as did social sciences and other things. Nothing was particularly challenging to me.

That is, nothing was challenging to me until I took my first art class. The truth is, I started art classes and pursuing art because (out of all of the subjects I was studying) art was the most challenging to me. I was intellectually stimulated by it, which was something that no other class was doing.

Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do?

I have always had a desire to act, sing, draw, and write. I was probably in my teen years when I realized that I needed to create. I had started writing books and poetry as a pre-teen, and I honestly could not think of anything that I wanted to do more.

Why do you make art now?

I make art now because I need to graduate. But outside of school, I make art because I

feel compelled to share my thoughts visually, so that I do not need to use words. When I need to use words I write poetry, songs, or fiction. But if I want to express something more subtly, I turn to art.

How has your work changed or developed over time?

I would say that my art has not had time to change. In the past five years that I have been in college all I have had the time to do is develop it. I have been honing the necessary skills to produce art, and I have been slowly developing a style and my artistic voice.

What are you trying to communicate with your art?

In my work, I often address the elements of the human condition. Mortality. Sickness. Mental illness. Physical illness. Emotions. Growth. Personification. Life and Death. Religion. I work from the inside outward. I think about things that affect me as an individual, and how they relate to the outside. What can the world relate to? What does the world not understand? What do I want the world to understand? What could I understand better?

Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making?

I like to sketch out my entire idea multiple times on the same paper with a ballpoint pen. I will change the composition entirely, multiple times, and still be able to see what decisions prompt me to change things. And if I want to go back to an earlier composition, I can still work over what I have done. It ends up being a mess of black scribbles that no one can understand but me.

What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why?

I enjoy the sketching process. Nothing is permanent in this stage and it can be worked over and over and over again. I would say I enjoy the sketching process more than I enjoy a final piece. It is less stressful to say you are sketching than to say you are drawing. To me, drawing implies a final piece; an end. Sketching is just a process that revolves around creating without the pressure of having to look complete. It is simply unbridled imagination and observation at work.

How do you know when a work is finished? I know my work is finished when I look at it and say, if I touch it one more time I will hate it forever. Then I walk away from it for a week, come back to it to see if I am still satisfied and that there is nothing more for me to do. If I come back to a piece and see that there is more that I want to do, the piece is not finished. I am almost never satisfied until I almost hate it.

What new creative medium would you love to pursue? I have recently purchased the tools required to start graphic painting. It is my goal to be a concept artist/storyboard artist for movies, TV, and video games. Most of the jobs out there require graphic art

skills. In my five years at college this is the one skill that I was never taught. I look forward to learning the medium thoroughly and getting just one step closer to my dream career.

What's the first artwork you ever sold?

The first piece of art I ever sold was an eight inch cylinder I made in my first pottery class. I sold it for five dollars at an art club sale at Fayetteville Technical Community College. I credit this piece as my first sale, simply because I was surprised someone bought it.

I can throw a decent cylinder, but who would want it? I put it out with my things on the table just because I had so many of them, but out of everything that I had created, people wanted the cylinders. They were so simple. I am left to wonder what people saw in them that made them want to take one home.

Do you make a living from your art?

No. Currently, I work as a pool operator and lead lifeguard. It is not glorious work, but it pays well enough. I am very realistic that way. I love to create, and I want art to be my future, but I have to make money to survive right now. And that is okay.

What are your goals for the future, for both work and life?

Professionally, I am at a bit of a crossroads. In the interest of art, I would like to pursue becoming a concept/storyboard artist. In addition to that, I want to finish the books I have been writing and get them published.

I would also like to continue pursuing a career in acting. I have been in several theater productions. However, I feel that it is time to move on to bigger things. There are many things I am trying to pursue at the moment. And for the moment, I am going to just keep pursuing things until something sticks. Personally, I want to travel. I have been dying to travel for years, but have been held back by school, medical complications, and funds. I want to see the Cliffs of Moher, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Swiss Alps, and Castles in Germany. I want to learn to surf waves, to spar with swords, dance, and sing. I want to experience life to its fullest while I am still young and it is physically easier to do so.

What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

As I stated before, I recently acquired all the devices I need to start learning graphic painting. I am taking the summer of 2020 to learn the media and start working on my own concept art for a book that I am writing. Character design, setting, architecture; I am going to design and paint it all!

What or who inspires you?

Nature is always inspiring. When I think about concept art, I think about nature and let my mind wander there. Music is an easy way to manipulate my mind into creating

things. It is amazing what the manipulation of emotions through the use of music can do for the imagination.

Where do you find ideas for your creative work?

I work a lot with introspection. Many ideas come from self-searching and the critiquing of my own flaws and beliefs. I use that introspection to see what I know, what I do not know, and what I want to know more about. I use that as a starting point to look outward and interpret it into drawings or words on paper.

What does being creative mean to you?

Being Creative to me is a fancy way of saying that you can create something from seemingly nothing.

What is the best creative advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I was ever given in relation to my art came from one of my professors. I was in my Painting 1 class, probably the third or fourth class I had taken with her, and I was struggling with blending paint. I was getting frustrated at my lack of skill; frustrated with the medium; and I was ready to give up on art. She said, Emily, you do this every time you learn a new medium. You stress and freak out when you don’t understand it, or can’t control it when you first use it, and then eventually you figure it out. She made me realize that when it comes to my creative process, I am hindered by my need for control and perfection. Later she told me, when I went to her for advice while attending a new school, if you don’t feel challenged, make it challenging. If they tell you to do one piece, do three. If that’s still not enough, do five. If they aren’t going to challenge you to help you grow, you need to challenge yourself. I credit her support as the reason I never gave up on pursuing art. If something is challenging me, I now push through until I understand it. If something is not behaving the way I think it should be, I experiment until I figure out why. And if I am not being properly challenged by the schoolwork being assigned to me, I go above and beyond the expectations of my teachers.

Do you have anything to say to artists who are just starting?

Don’t give up. And don’t limit yourself. If something is challenging, it is something worth learning. And with that being said, if one form of art is not your thing, try something else. There is more to being an artist than just strictly being a painter or a poet. There are many different kinds of art that people can be genuinely good at.

I have met so many painters who cannot sculpt. I have met ceramicists who cannot draw. I have met stage performers who get shy in front of a camera. You do not have to be good at everything! Just don’t stop before you find out what you are good at. Contact Information: Email: emilybrown1701@yahoo.com

Anemia Ink on watercolor paper

Anger Ink on watercolor paper

Anxiety Ink on watercolor paper

Depression Ink on watercolor paper

Mortality Ink on watercolor paper

Paranoia Ink on watercolor paper