Brejenn Allen

Whoever said that youth was wasted on the young had yet to meet this week's artist.
Brejenn Allen is young, ambitious, and putting in the hard work. The Meridian-based artist uses a mixture of current culture and unconventional materials bringing texture and humor into her work. Find out all about Brejenn's inspiration and process, and then find her on social media if you haven't already.

Oh, and Lowes, if you're listening, Brejenn is an artist with a passion for your store... Brand ambassador Queen... Just throwing it out there.

Find Brejenn:
https://brejennallen.com/
https://www.instagram.com/brejenn
https://www.tiktok.com/@brejennallen

Find us:
www.TheLittleYellowBuilding.com
www.tlybARTMAG.com

Transcript

Derek Smith: 0:10

Hey everyone and welcome or welcome back to the Mississippi artists to artists Podcast. I'm extremely happy to have Bridgen Allen with us today. Bridgen is an artists that is just so fun to watch on social media, just that you have a way of mixing humor and real life situations and pop culture and this really fun entertaining so it brings like not only not only your art to people's view, but your personality and you and getting invested in you as an artist. So I'm, I'm just so excited to have you here with us to get started off region. Why don't you tell us a little bit about growing up and your history with art?

Brejenn Allen: 0:59

Awesome. Okay. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me and saying all this often type things about me and my tomfoolery on social media. So let's see growing up, I always had a great support system through my family for my artsy ways. I've always been artsy I came out as a toddler just wrecking the walls. And my mom tells people this story about this white carpet she got when I was four, that I ruined with Crayola markers. I don't know why she decided to get white carpet with polygons. But yeah, so I was just, I was just always really artsy, really creative. And my parents really, that me, they didn't try to sway me away from it. Even if I did, you know, your own furniture. They kind of gave into it. And before, before long, my mom was helping me, you know, jaw all over my walls. And she just gave up and just said, you know, let's just do it. I can't stop it. So, yeah, we're out of time I was in my teens. My room just like had pain all over the walls and the walls were my sketchbooks. So growing up, I was very lucky to have a family that supported my creativity, even if I deviated away from it and was like, oh, I want to be a doctor. I want to do something serious. They all just kind of looked at me like yeah, okay, whatever. So it was fun. I was very fortunate to have supportive family. But yeah.

Derek Smith: 2:48

Did you have any type of arts in high school?

Brejenn Allen: 2:53

I did have I had an art teacher, Miss Madison, in high school. And yeah, it was great. That was like, that was really fun. I had like a summer camp earlier and elementary school that I did with arts, but I didn't really get a lot of access to supplies until that particular class in high school with Miss Madison. And she knew that I was going places before I even did like everybody knew I was just painting and John and having fun and everybody looking at me like yeah, you you're gonna do something serious this like you don't you think you're just fooling around, but this is like, this is really good work. But so yeah, she was she was very, she was very cool teacher. And she was very, she's nice. And she was soft and introverted. Like I was so I really vibe with her and really liked her. She was different from all the other teachers. Were just like yelling at me. And, you know, just really stressed out she was she's the teacher that was a vibe, which I guess you could expect her the art teacher, right. But yeah, I loved her class. Our right little note, I was like one of the only kids in the school who like write really legible cursive. That was just like, really nice. So I would write my little excuses and forge the teacher signature, so I would get to class. But I was like my little style, that it has to be kids because maybe I will write their excuses. They forage they eat cheese. So I will get our right minds I can get to go to this class. But yeah, that was my first. I wouldn't say it was my first because I did have this summer camp. But that was the one where I, you know, was old enough to be like, oh, man, it's cool. She's like my escape from high school.

Derek Smith: 4:54

And you ended up at the Art Institute of Chicago, correct?

Brejenn Allen: 4:59

Yeah. So I went to emcc first. And then my two years there under Terry cherry and Lisa Spanx. And then, um, when I was applying for schools, mistakes was she was really adamant about SAIC, because, you know, it's so instrumental and the art scene for like the whole country. So she's talking about how, like when they over in Germany, when the Holocaust is happening, and the Jewish artists has, like, escaped, they came over and started the Art Institute. She was like, all into the history of it. I wanted to go to Yale. So I applied to Yale and Art Institute and scared, um, and I got into SCAD. And I got into the Art Institute with a scholarship and I didn't get into Yale. So I was like, Okay, I guess he went. So I went there. And then it was, the city is so amazing. And I'm from Gary, Indiana, which is like 20 minutes from Chicago. So I was like, I guess this is a practical decision. I mean, as far as art school goes, our school isn't exactly practical. But you know, um, to go back home closer to you know, my family. Um, it was it was pretty easy decision between SAIC and scared. So, um, yeah, I'm really, I'm really grateful. For emcc and their preliminary teaching, they introduced me to a lot of stuff that I hadn't done before my first oil painting. I remember, under under Mr. Cherry, we did like oil painting for the first time, it was everyone's first time we got to pick our canvas. And I take like, the biggest canvas like a fine. It was like, Oh, my, it was like three feet by four feet. And he looked at me he's like, Are you sure you want to? This is your first time you want to? I was like, Yes. I want to do this bit. Big cam is Go Big go home, I still have it. My first my first little painting is over in, in storage on the day. So I'm really grateful for them. And then I applied and got the scholarship. And I was like, well, they're gonna pay for it. Might as well. So that's how I ended up up there. And it was so much fun. It was the best time of my life. I love college. It was very stressful. I cried every day, but I loved it, it was it was very rigorous. Incredibly, people say you know, you're an artist, you must be having so much fun. It must be so easy to just be creative. And just do what you want to do and just go where this be as the air and be a free spirit. But let me tell you, you go to art school is the exact opposite. You because You are getting graded on your creativity, and how you can how creative you can think in. And then you have deadlines and people critiquing and telling you that your stuff looks terrible. And you're like, but this is what's in my head. This is what you want. It is incredibly confusing, and very rigorous and it is crazy. So yeah, I always tell people when they tell me that you try it.

Derek Smith: 8:55

It's a dedicated time around people that are dedicated to the same things that you are doing. And it's probably one of the only times in your life where you're going to be that close. And that confined with a whole bunch of political people.

Brejenn Allen: 9:11

Yes, we are all it's, it's like a you don't want to say it's like a competition. Oh, me being competitive. Yes. I'm like this is a competition. All I want I am supportive of all my art friends, all my art girlfriends. We collaborate on lots of different projects. But I'm competitive. I'm also very business minded. So when I went to the Art Institute with all institutions, those walls I didn't appreciate how when I went to art school, they really push you know studio and your craft and making paintings and teaching you how to think about creativity, but they didn't push business and how to market yourself and how to sell these paintings after You graduate, they really just want you to fall into galleries and depend on galleries. And you know, the traditional model for how to be an artist, get a representative. They didn't teach you at all about you know, business and how to sell it or like a website or E commerce, nothing like that. So they did have business classes, they didn't push them out, like they should have they really pushed out, you know, art history you need, you need 20 hours of art history, we would really love it if you sat in his art history class for four hours and talk about all these old paintings of naked people like, that was so important to my development, apparently, but not a business.

Derek Smith: 10:55

Things that's bothered me about art history curricula is that they do they go in and they talk about all these monumental paintings, which is okay, you need to know that stuff. You know, you need to know what changes the world every once in a while. But they barely dive into the backgrounds and the lives of the artist. And that's what you really need to know. Like, how did they survive? Because that still translates?

Brejenn Allen: 11:17

Yeah, like they, they didn't survive like Van Gogh sold one painting. So like. So it's not, it's not, um, if necessary, but I really would have appreciated if they made business as mandatory as they did the art history. So I mean, have that stuff that I memorize on flashcards for art history class, I don't even remember anymore. So I go to the museums now. And I go to shows and I'm like, this looks familiar. This looks like something I've seen in art history. But I don't know. Like, this is from 1857. This is Manet, like, I don't know, specifically. So yeah, but being being business minded, I, I am competitive. And I look at art school, as these are my competitors in a market for art, where I'm trying to steal paintings and pictures for 1000s of dollars. So yeah, when I when I got up there, and I was doing that, and I was trying to, I was supporting other artists and collaborating with other artists. But I was also figuring out how am I going to compete with these artists? How's my work different? How's my work satisfying? Visual need that hasn't been explored yet? Or if it hasn't been explored? How can I do it in a different way? So, yeah.

Derek Smith: 12:52

So how did you end up in Mississippi?

Brejenn Allen: 12:55

Okay, that's a good question. Okay, so when, when I was around 11, when we first moved here, I was 11. And that was because my grandfather had a stroke, and we moved here to take care of him. So we, when we lived in Gary, it was on the decline. It was very inner city. And it was it was ghetto. I don't know how else to put it. Um, there was a lot of gang violence. The Chicago was getting gentrified on the west side. So all of the gangs are getting pushed out. And they were coming over to our city. And they were clashing with the gangs that were already there. So it was very, very dangerous. It was like, it was routine to you know, just get on the floor, when you heard bullets, like you just dropped to the floor. And then we just get back up and go about the rest of the day. We didn't really think anything of it. But my parents were like, trying to like get us out of there. So when we lived in Gary, when we weren't in school, on the weekends, we will actually leave the city and go fishing in the country every single weekend, because my parents just did not want us to be in that environment. And there was nothing else for us to do. You couldn't just go to the playground. Like that was just, it was dangerous, and we didn't even realize it. So um, that my grandfather being sick, gave them a little bit more pressure to move us out of that environment. And so that was why we moved to Mississippi. And then they had talked about moving back. But we ultimately just ended up staying because they enjoyed the peace and quiet. It's a lot less dangerous. Even in like the cities they talk about like the shootings that are going on in Meridian, and I'm just like it'd be a lot worse like y'all don't You know? So yeah, that's how I got. That's how my family got here. And then after college, when I graduated in 2020. So, right in March, when everything went down, it was actually my birthday weekend, march 15. And 2020. They were like, We don't know what's really happening. That's what the school were, they were saying, we don't know what's going on. But y'all need to get out of here. So they were like, yeah, get out of the dorm. We don't care where you go, you just can't stay here. And so we're just kind of like, whoa, what about the people that can't afford to go home or like me? I was I was working two jobs. I was like, Okay, so now I have to, like, we scrape together money to play pay for this plane ticket for me to get home. And I had to leave on my art supplies, and I couldn't take anything with me. So when I got back here, in March, I was just really depressed because I didn't have anything to create with. And, you know, the stores were like, we didn't even have like our art store here at that time, because Hobby Lobby just got built. I didn't have any supplies. And I, um, I went to the schools, and you know, they have like, stuff that they throw away that the kids just, and by that time the schools are like closing down. So I was just like going in dumpsters and get in like canvases and stuff that they were throwing away. This is how low I was, I was just like, really depressed. And I was creating art that look depressed, I was painting with my fingers because I didn't have brushes. So 2020 is how I got that to Mississippi after college. And I was doing, I was doing my last semester entirely online. And our teachers didn't know how to how do you teach a painting class on Zoom? Like, we were all confused. We were all angry. And yeah, it was incredibly frustrating. But I graduated, and I have a BFA. And yeah, so that's how I got back to Mississippi after the pandemic. And I was when I first got that on the plane. They didn't say anything. They said, You know, we don't know if you're supposed to wear a mask or gloves, or if they didn't know what nobody knew what to do. So I had this luid on fabric, and I could amass out of it. Because I was also in the fashion program there. So if I'm gonna put something on my face, it has to be branded, it has to look fashionable. So I got to the airport, and people were like, Oh my God, that's so nice. And when I landed, I had like, two contracts with the hospital with a local doctor. Like, every everyone needed Maths. But there was a shortage, no one knew where to get them. And I was just, I was like, 19 hopping off the plane. I had a sewing machine. And I was making, I was making money. And but I didn't have any art supplies. I did not care. I was like, Look, this is great. But I can't buy art supplies because there's no art store. And this isn't, this isn't fun. So that that was I was in the news. I was on TV. And it was all fun and great, but I couldn't paint so I was really happy. So that's that's the Mississippi story. I'm a lot happier now. It's been two years I've gotten readjusted. I actually got just got back from Chicago last weekend. I went up there just to hang out with my own with my college friends because I hadn't seen them since everything went down two years ago. So it was really great to get to see now but I've gotten readjusted to being in the south where everything is much slower. But I think I'm like bringing them along with me. I'm like, forcing myself to. I'm making it work. So I'm meridian. I'm getting involved in organizations and we're making things happen I refuse to just be here existing and go into a job and just just being I don't I don't want to say mediocre because hardworking people are admirable, but that's just not my thing. I'm not just want to get up and go to the job and just exist. So I am making it work, I'm having art shows, I'm still in art. I'm doing social media, I'm selling paintings that way. So I'm making it work. And I'm getting adjusted. And try not to be so sad.

Derek Smith: 20:16

I can completely relate to every bit of what you just talked about, because moving back here is, is an adjustment, a really, really big. Yeah. So I'm glad you're here because I enjoy just your presence in Mississippi getting to watch what you're producing. And your artwork is so cool. Like it's based around a lot of pop culture reference. And then it's a lot of life influence in there. And it's these big, old, bold, beautiful colors and subject matter. And I love figurative art anyway, and you have this interesting collage style of collaging images and stuff together, just I really appreciate it. And you bring in a lot of unconventional media into your artwork, like you were in the seven deadly sins show that we had. Yeah, we that was in February, and the two pieces that you had in general, generosity and greed, they had these beads on it, along with these plaster dollar, it was just beautiful, like it was a thing, and I loved looking at it. And it actually made me think about greed and generosity and what it means to different people, and I appreciate your artwork a lot, what inspires a lot of your art?

Brejenn Allen: 21:33

Well, I, let's see, I paint what I like to look at, quite honestly, I don't pay anything that I wouldn't want to have in my house. Because ultimately, until it fails, that's where it's gonna be a man look at it every day. I'm not that I don't know, I don't want to pay anything that I don't want to look at. I don't really do a lot of abstract stuff. I have great respect for the abstract artists and all the it a lot of it is beautiful. But I want to put a little bit more effort into what I do. And I want something that has meaning. I understand abstract as having meaning with motion and emotion. But I want something that I can look at and be like, this is something and it means something. And I want people to look at it and what I meant by what I painted. So what inspires me is just what I see around me, or what I want to see around me in the future. So with the greed and generosity piece, like I created it for that. This the parameters. I didn't have it before, because I really wanted to exhibit with you all, because I hadn't I hadn't exhibited with any gallery in Mississippi before. So and you all were like really cool. And you were active on social media. And you were like, we're a gallery but we're not a gallery. It was very mysterious. And it attracted me and I was like, well I want to exhibit but the gallery that's not a gallery so I'm gonna make these pieces that they cannot turn down because I built them for this. You guys accepted it. Oh, yeah. Because this is made for this literally. So that's what, that's what those pieces were about. You guys inspired me. So I made something specifically for you. And so just whatever's around me that I can see that's inspiring me. A lot of times it's about being black. But sometimes it's not like glaucoma. Kroc was just like this funny meme I saw on Facebook that I was like, Man, that is so funny. Like, what if I painted that? And what if it was art, but people are gonna look at it and be like, That's not art fascism. Me. But why can't I mean be art? So? And then what? How can that provoke people to think about what defines fine art? And look at this Glock on this croc? And question how ridiculous we make fine art out to these just like this thing that's inaccessible to people and just like raising questions and man funny. I'm a huge goofball. So all of those things. Very clever

Derek Smith: 24:38

with your art and you're clever with your statements. And they're always entertaining, but they have so much truth to it. And if you're an artist, like please go and follow Jen's reagins reels because they talk about real things that you go through as an artist like when people come up and doubt your artwork. You have an internal reaction that you don't tell them. Go watch this real like this. Yeah. Do you want to turn around and tell them every time like your your eye? Yeah, you're just a joy to watch.

Brejenn Allen: 25:12

Yeah, I try, I try to be transparent because when I got to Chicago, it was a lot. There's a lot of formality. And, you know, we gather in these groups around each other's artwork, and we use all these fluffy terms. And we just, it's so ceremonial. And I just sit there and look at them, like, come on, like, really, like really? Oh, it's, it's, it's interesting. And we're also shy and introverted, or at school, nobody really wants to put it out there. Or I want to say talk about it, because we talked about it amongst each other. But we don't share about it on social media or publicly or we don't blog about it. So I found a niche that was underserved. I was like this is we're funny, we have these problems. And a lot of our artsy problems, regular people who don't have a creative bone in their body can relate with also. So they ended up identifying with it and the artsy people identify with the info, we just all get together in my comment section. And chat and have fun, and I'm really grateful for the community that I've been able to build on Instagram and Tiktok is very cool. I didn't think for a second that I would end up being a tick talker, or an Instagramer my sister was actually the first one to start tick tock and she would do the dances and stuff and I would just like be so anti tick tock like, Oh my God, you're like one of those teenagers is she'll like on our flight home. From like Chicago during the pandemic that we had, like scraped to put together she was doing a tick tock dance in the middle of the airport. embarrassing me and I was like, Would you stop doing you are a grown woman and you are dancing for the internet. And now I like to do it every day. So it's a full circle. Like God, it's so funny. He's like, Ah, how about How about them apples how you fill in now. So it is it's fun. I have a lot of fun getting on their act and getting to connect with people and meet new people and come across opportunities. So yeah, if you aren't artists are not an artist. I would love to if you check me out. I feel like I'm I'm pretty great. I don't know.

Derek Smith: 28:04

You can find it on Instagram. Just it's Bridgen just be our EJENN and it's regen allen.com to find a website. What's your Tik Tok? I don't do tick tock.

Brejenn Allen: 28:18

Tick tock is breech. And Alan everything is supposed to be breathing out and like all my social media except for Instagram, because when I first started Instagram, I was like, man, it would be so cool to just have my username as my first name because then I'm like Beyonce, right? But what was available, I'm like, I got it. I've never changed him. So I can't I can't change that. So everything's regen out and it's except for Instagram. Instagram is just breathing because I'm trying to be like Beyonce. But the rest is freezing out. And all social media Twitter. I haven't mastered Twitter yet, because it's just words and I'm not incredibly great with words. I wish it was just pictures but then that would just be Instagram all over again. So I'm figuring out Twitter, you can follow me on there if you'd like I try to say things that don't sound stupid. And tick tock tick tock tick tock is more about like my life as opposed to like my art so I just have regular stuff on there about like my gardening and just regular random stuff that you wouldn't think I'd be doing my RV. I live in an RV. So that stuff is on Tik Tok. And then Facebook is for like my older audience and my family. You know, the people that I see at church that know my very PG stuff more appropriate for our T's and stuff, you know that audience but Instagram, I'm just like, everything's everything's everything. Doesn't matter. Everything. Everything goes. So yeah, Follow me anywhere, whichever platform is the most, what you are what you want?

Derek Smith: 30:06

Well, I want to ask you two things. And we'll get everything wrapped up. I appreciate you giving your time to this interview. One, tell us a little bit about your process of making art. You know, whatever you feel is, is kind of your core process. And then I'll ask you about any advice that you have.

Brejenn Allen: 30:27

Okay, so my process, I spend a lot of time thinking, I wake up, and you know that our were you wake up and you're, like, awake, but you're not really awake, you're still asleep, but you are not in deep sleep. That little area, I'm like thinking of our ideas. And I'm like, going through things I'm thinking about the day I had the day before and what inspires me or what I'm seeing on social media, I'm just constantly thinking, I have my phone next to my bed. So it has like my notes that I, whenever I wake up, if I still remember what I dreamed about, I'll write it now. So I sent a lot of time thinking as a big part of why I'm so quiet. People see me on social media, and they think that I'm just as active and actually just this extrovert, which I'm not i i sit my RV and I'm quiet and I paint. I enjoy silence I when I interact with other people, I'll get like a sensory overload with voices. So like I don't, I, I won't even listen to music with people actually like singing because I don't want to hear nobody talking. I don't want to hear people. So just a lot of silence a part of my process, classical music, nothing with any words. And then when I do finally get a solid idea that isn't crap, I will sketch it out in my sketchbook or in Photoshop, or whatever I have near me. And since a lot of my work is collage like later on today, after I get off of this interview, I'll be ordering like prints of, of the Harriet $100 bills that I made. So those are going to be printed out like 20 inches, so they're going to be huge. So I like I can collage them into a painting. So it's a lot of logistics, like that's why earlier when I said you know, creativity is not easy. It's not as simple. Just go with the wind thing it can be, but the way I do it, it's very, it's a business. So it requires like my checklist. Yeah, so the collages are ordered the prints that are getting collage into the art. So I'm doing that later today. And hates Lowe's is a big part of my process. I really want a sponsorship with Lowe's, like they need to pay me as much as I go to Lowe's and post content and Lowe's. I've reached out to them. They haven't, you know, gotten back to me loads if you're listening to this to please. Loads is a big part of my art process because there's so much material and loads in different textures and just unconventional stuff that artists wouldn't normally use. And that's what, that's what my painting is about. It's just about using stuff that isn't normal. So I'll have like, my most recent paintings have like joint compound and roofing mud. So just like all these, all these, all these materials and tile loads is a huge part of my process and finding those materials. And then coming back to my studio. And creating my studio is the I'm at home now but my studio is about five miles from me and it's out in the woods in this driveway. That looks like if you drive a person down in there, I drove a friend down in there and he thought I was about to like take him out into the woods and chop him up into little pieces or something. But it's very like creepy and it goes off into the woods and then it opens up into this like clearing like 10 acres with this shed right in the middle of it next to this pot. And that is my studio. It has no power or water. So it's very disconnected and off the grid. There's no Wi Fi no connection. So there's no room for distraction. And I just I stay up there and I paint until it gets really, really hot in the summer, or really, really cold in the winter. So, and now it's like the perfect time because it's not too hot or cold. So I'll be going over to my studio to paint. But that's a lot of what my process looks like. So just know, thinking and getting my prints made for collages, what people give a lot of, like, random stuff out of their houses to me because they know how to use it for Yeah, so like, the BS that I did for the greed and generosity piece was just like stuff that a lady gave me out of her house. Yeah, collaging with found materials, stuff that people give to me, and then go on to loads, finding what I could find, as far as different textures and materials, and then head to the studio and putting it all together. And a big part of my process is filming it, obviously, for social media. Because the process is very important for me, but also for other artists to get inspired and see what I'm doing. So yeah, so filming the whole time, I'm doing all of this, which is a little distracting, because you're like trying to make your art, but also, you need to film it. But you have to get on Instagram and film it. And then you don't Instagram and you start scrolling and forget that you're there to film it. And you've lost two hours of your studio time. And so I'm working on that part. But yeah, so that's what my past is about, and then posting about it later. I'm trying to learn how to incorporate social media into my process, without completely exhausting all my time away, and maintaining healthy boundaries with it. So that's what the process looks like. I mean, four sounds like

Derek Smith: 36:56

is the isolation. That's is that a huge part of it?

Brejenn Allen: 37:01

Yes, it is a huge part because I cannot function in front of people I find, especially for social media. Sometimes my mom will come to the studio with me and just sit and read a book. But I didn't, I cannot. With her looking. She's not even looking at me. But just her presence being there. I can't film or be my like, naturally goofy. So on camera issues is sitting there. But I can't paint with people watching because obviously we had to do that in Chicago during studio sessions. We have like the six hour long class, we just had to paint and your professor was watching you. I've gotten very accustomed to that. Because I have this one really just macho professor. We call him boss. And he was just like he said I was a genius. I really appreciated him. Like he said I was a genius. But at the same time, he was always just like, he'll walk up behind my paintings and he just take his hand and just like his entire hand through my little oil painting and be like, just like saying expletives at me like this is complete and utter. Just bullshit. It's terrible. I hate it. Yes. But he did that on several occasions, though. He He's always. And then after I fixed it, he was like, Sure. Such a team. You are, you are going places. I don't understand your mind. I'm like, my mind. May the painting initially that you ruined. So I don't quite understand how your logic works. But okay, thanks for the vote of confidence. So, yeah, isolation is important for my social media process. But I can paint in front of people. So not as important for for painting, but people can watch me paint. But don't talk to me while I paint. So it's very, very, i Silence is more important than isolation. Because I don't know what it is about voices. But I don't want to, I can't even when I was in studio sessions in school, I would have headphones on and they would play classical music. So and you would have to tap me on the shoulder to walk up to me and say whatever you want it to. And I will try to be as nice as possible. But I was obviously annoyed. And but yeah, so people would walk up and try to you know, give me a pointer or say I really like that. I'll be like, thank you. So yeah, I'm a really nice person. I'm really nice in person. Like that's not to say, I'm like, I try I'm a very nice person. I don't want to give the impression that I'm a mean person if you try to talk to me

Derek Smith: 40:04

Not at all, you need the barrier.

Brejenn Allen: 40:11

Absolutely, I need that to be creative.

Derek Smith: 40:17

For those of you who are listening, and we reference the flamingos, if you go to Bridgend website and go to the original art and scroll down, you're you have this beautiful painting of lawn flamingos on this blue, beautiful fabric. And when you go in and read the description, has that story in it. And I'm like, That's brilliant. Like, that's it. You're just so honest and candid. Even when you go to sell your art. You're like, my, my professor swiped this, and we finish.

Brejenn Allen: 40:49

Yeah, he did. And I actually just bought that painting, like, like, who was it? It was like a month ago. I was like, Man, you don't even know this is an iconic region moment right here. It's just like, Yes, I know. That's why I'm buying it. And I was like, thank you. But you don't you don't even know what I had to go through to make?

Derek Smith: 41:13

Well, last question, and and I'll let you get back to your day. For anyone who's coming up behind you are anyone Are you as a younger self, what would be some advice that you would give,

Brejenn Allen: 41:26

I would give the advice to be consistent. I am I myself am struggling with consistency. But it's important to treat your art like it is your job. Or to obligate yourself to your art, like you obligate yourself to a nine to five. So I work a nine to five, four days a week. And on my Fridays that I'm off my Saturdays and my Sundays, I get up the same time I do my nine to five, and I paint, or I work on my website, or I batch film for social media, and I'm consistent with it. So treat your craft, like your business, like your job, if that's what you want it to be. If you just want it to be a hobby, then that's fine, that's cool. But if you don't, and if you plan on being known and making a living from it, then it can't just be something that you do when you feel like it, you have to have discipline. Because discipline kicks in when you don't have the motivation. So I would say consistency, and social media is so beneficial. And it's a game changer when I graduated. And I had to move back here for the pandemic, a big part of why I got so depressed was because I fully anticipated on staying in Chicago, and living there after I graduated. Because that's how you make a living. As an artist, you have to be in a city, or I thought you had to be in a city where those types of people are and that type of stuff is happening. You have to be in a city with those types of people. So when I got back to Mississippi, in this town with 800 people, these types of people aren't buying $5,000 paintings. But social media changes that. And now I'm all over the world while still being in this town. 800 people selling paintings for $5,000. So don't take social media as a joke. Be consistent with it, incorporate it into your process, make it a big part of your job, because it widens your audience and makes the whole world assessable to what you have to offer instead of just the immediate people around you. Yeah, that's helpful.

Derek Smith: 44:02

It's great. It's great. Oh, thank you so much for coming on and spending this time with us and sharing about your life and your process and all your experiences. I've had, like I've said over and over like I just get a thrill out of watching you on social media. I think you're so you're here in Mississippi.

Brejenn Allen: 44:21

Thank you so much for having me. This was fun. I hope I didn't talk too much or was all over the place.

Derek Smith: 44:29

For everyone else, thank you for joining us and listening and and we will reach out to breach in and reach out to these other artists and follow them and see what they're up to because their lives are so entertaining. And it can you can get so much out of just seeing an artist and then experiencing their art. It really is kind of an amazing transition to be able to see that and social media does that for us. We're able to really connect with the artist and go through and really connect to their art and Till next time, everybody have a great week and we'll talk to you then. And a special thank you goes to our members, the friends of the little yellow building. Beth Breeland, Mary Hardy, Gwen fury, Mary Adams, Jenny Howard, Jenny Moke. Evelyn PV, the Evans Family, Janet Smith, Buffy, Jordan, Jennifer drink water, the Smith family, bopper Zach and Hannah Hester, thank you for all the support