#064: Brandy Jones Becomes Brave Enough to Be Seen

Have you ever reached a point in your creative life where the work itself starts asking something deeper of you?

Not better technique.
Not more exposure.
But more of you.

In this conversation, Brandi Jones opens up about the quiet, internal shift that happens when creativity stops being something you do and starts becoming something that shapes who you are. She reflects on growth, mistakes, and the way art gently—sometimes uncomfortably—invites us into a new version of ourselves.

Rather than chasing perfection, Brandi speaks honestly about learning not to fear errors… about allowing discovery to lead instead of certainty… and about how each phase of her creative life has molded her into who she is today. Her story isn’t about arriving—it’s about allowing yourself to be changed by the act of creating.

This episode isn’t a roadmap.
It’s a mirror.

A reminder that creativity often grows us before it grows the work… and that becoming is part of the art itself.

If you’ve ever felt that subtle nudge—the sense that your creativity is asking you to step forward, take yourself seriously, or shed an old version of who you’ve been—this conversation will feel like a deep exhale.

You’re not behind.
You’re becoming.

Brandy's Profile
Brandy's Website

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Who do I have had to become? Yeah. I would think my mother. I'm serious because what a what a magnificent woman. I mean, to bear.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Hello, and welcome to another edition of the For the Love of Creatives podcast. I am your host, Dwight, joined by Maddox. And today, our featured guest is the lovely Brandy Jones. Welcome, Brandy.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Um, we're so glad that you could join us here. Uh, and uh I've gotten a chance to see some of your work. I I believe I saw you featured at the uh pencil and paper gallery a while back. Did you share it?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Excellent. Absolutely.

From Blankets To Art

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Um and I know that we've had a chance to talk a few times before, but how about you give just a little introduction to our listeners to let them know who you are and what you're about?

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Hi, everyone. I am Brandy Jones, founder of Rock and Yarn Artistry. Um, that is filled within its own um collaborative of yarn, gem, stone to bring one rugged but soft edge to artwork. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

I love that. I love everything that sparkles.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

I do too. The creation of it all.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Well, and and that is definitely something that is unique because uh I've seen some of your work, there's definitely images and there's kind of a uh a textured aspect that uh makes it a little more a little more warm than something that you would see that's normally in a frame hanging in a gallery. Um how did you come by uh creating these works?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Um my process started from building and uh creating uh blankets. I created sports blankets, uh home blankets, couch blankets, blankets on your bed, uh more like uh quilting, but it's just more of a um crocheting. But I started doing blankets after COVID hit, and um, that was because I wanted to give my sisters something to hold on in memory of my uh mother, and uh started from there. Love the idea of well using them as uh uh I guess pig on the blanket.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Guinea pigs, guinea pigs on the blanket.

unknown 3:30

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

So and they loved them. They even though they was kind of like mixed up a little bit, different color, they loved them. But just pig on the blankets. I used them as guinea pigs, and I went from there. I had uh love of uh warmth, it was comforting, uh, takes your mind off of daily things. And um, yeah, I sent it to them and they loved it. So start from there.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

So you you started off, I guess quilting would fit more in a crafting genre than it would an art genre. And and then what was it that created that subtle shift to change from crafting to art? Things that people didn't wrap around them, but viewed and got all of the warmth from the the beauty.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Well, that warmth and softness come from um what I saw while I was doing the blankets. I saw the comfort, I saw um the passion that people felt when they bought my blankets, the excitement of one person doing it handcrafted. And um, so from there I was like, you know, what else can I do? Because I'm always looking for how to think outside the box, you know, bringing something us, something other than just um what it is, the this ISF, just think of the imagination of it all. So I went into the store and got some more blankets. Well, I was looking for more yarn, different, unique, different style yarn. And I saw some gems, I saw rocks, and I was like colorful rocks. And so I was like, okay, I wonder how that would look if I did a picture on the blanket. And it just kind of exploded from there, you know. Just I don't know, it was just something that said create, you know, and it just drew my activ my ideas from there.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

It was just an evolution, wasn't it? I believe so.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

I think so. And it continues to grow, it continues to grow from there.

First Shows And Rapid Progress

SPEAKER_03 5:25

And and you have recently shown in in um pencil and paper, and that's that's a pretty cool gallery. I mean, that's that's quite a progression to go from making blankets for family to hanging on the walls in a prestigious gallery. What's the time frame from when you started creating blankets to now?

SPEAKER_00 5:50

It would um, let me see, about a year and a half, almost two, um, two years time frame of perfecting what I say is not always perfect, but just perfecting a skill set that was basically forced into, you know, so you start from there and just grow. And um, that's a good thing because now I have uh expanded into the arts of hotel viewing. So now I'm in the canvas hotel with my artwork. Yeah. Wow.

Hustle, Cold Calls, And Resilience

SPEAKER_03 6:24

Um Brandy, your progression has happened really fast. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about how you got in those fabulous places. What did you do to find yourself hanging in in a lovely hotel or or in a you know, a quality gallery?

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Yeah, well, nothing comes easy. It takes hard work, dedication, and um just believing in yourself, believing in your work. Um, I think that knowing your capability, knowing your skills, knowing that someone's no is someone else's yes. And just keep pushing yourself. So I just called around to different hotels, different schools, different churches to see if they have any events and uh just kind of went from there. You know, like I said, someone might say, hey, we're not doing it right now, we don't have any events coming. Just keep calling and call back. Like, do you have something else?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

I I love it. It's it reminds me of of something that I I say a lot, and that is if you don't ask, then the answer is already no.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Absolutely. So you've already given up. You've already given up.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Where did that sense of determination and persistence come from? Is that something that you were raised with as a child, or is that something you've had to develop along the way?

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Definitely raised up in as a child. My mother and father, um, we have 15 sisters and brothers. And my father has always been when he didn't go to high school, didn't go to junior high, where he dropped out of school in junior high, and basically just came became self-taught. Um, and I learned that from my my parents. My my father, he would just teach us like, you know, if you don't have anything, that you didn't we didn't have the money to go get some of the things, so you had to substitute and you just build off of that. We built goat cars and everything with just wood, tree limbs. So yeah, old lawnmowers. So just that seeing that effort, you know, not giving up, you know. My dad would always say, Stop using the word can't. Did you try it? If you hadn't tried, how you would know you can't do it.

Family Roots And Making Something From Nothing

SPEAKER_03 8:30

So you're kind of touching my heart a little bit because that was very similar to my growing up, didn't have that many siblings, but my my dad would make things out of nothing for me. I had toys that were handmade out of just whatever scraps were laying around. And um, you know, I look back, I don't know that I thought it was cool when it was happening. You know, I think I had the appreciation that I do now, but I look back now and and think, you know, that that was modeled to me in a way that made me really appreciate creativity in itself, you know, how as a kid I could take a bath towel and put a you know a clip or my neck and have a suit a Superman cape, or or take an old ivory liquid bottle and fill it with water. And I had a squirt gun. And and you're you're right, we did what we had to do with what we had on hand. And I and I look back on that with so much appreciation. I yeah, yeah, yeah, that just really that really touches home when you when you say you just made things out of what was that's true creativity. When you can spend something out of nothing, that's real creativity.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Absolutely. And talk about giving. My um, like I said, I mentioned my we had 15 sisters and brothers and the same mother and father. So to see one day um a story, a backstory where my sister asked us to send to create letters for my father to honor my father and my mother, you know, just it was their anniversary. And we all were supposed to write letters and what was you were appreciative of. And we all stood up and said our letter to my parents, and my sister stood up, and her in her letter, she said she sat at the table when we were on dinner one day, and my dad was taking off his shoe, and she just happened to look at the bottom of his shoe with a hole in it. And my my sister was like, Dad, why are you wearing your shoes with a hole in it? He's like, I'd rather go with some shoes with a hole in it than my child, my children's to go without. And that said a lot. So for someone to take care of kids like that and not look at what they've gone through, but just continue to give, we can't. I mean, come on, you gotta keep pushing. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. What and it was not a dry eye. I bet not.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

I bet not. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You you you really received some rare gifts as a child. I mean, we've had lots of conversations, and we haven't had very many conversations where the the other person talked about the great gifts that they received as as children. It's it's not usually that way. What what an amazing story.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Yeah. Are you gonna be able to do that? It's very touching. Yeah, neither one of my mother passed in 2011 and my dad 2013. So yeah, we just took I I look at it as well polished parents because they taught us so much of so much of giving. And um, yeah, very touching.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Well, it sounds to me like they they taught you core values, which is something that really has faded into black. We just don't have much of that going on in our world anymore. I mean, I ask people from time to time, so tell me what your core values are, and they look at me like I have three heads like like core values? What's that? Yeah, and and how do you really operate a meaningful life without core values?

unknown 12:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Yeah, you have to go back and look at all the things that you are appreciative of because you know, when you're young, we're just living. Everything is easy. You know, we don't take a moment to look at what how our art really become. Because if you think about it, you know, the things that we look at and say, Oh, that's oh, we can just have that, we can just spend money to pay for that. Back then when my mother and my father had things, it was just putting things together to make it work. That's art. If you go back and look at it, that's art. You know, even the meals, if you don't have a lot of funds and take care of all those kids, you're putting a meal together. That's art. And at the end of the day, what comes out of it? Love. Because it was given to you out of something that didn't have.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Yeah. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

You you you have a very unique perspective and a very healthy perspective and and a very inspiring perspective. Wow. Well, we never know until we get into these conversations.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Yeah. Out of out of coming from that huge home full of love, I I know that it took quite a journey to to get you to where you went before you made this uh big splash in the and the art world. Um how how do you looking back, how do you see that that through line of who you became coming from that home with the 15 siblings and your parents and uh making those stops along the way?

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Um, they see it's a um roller coaster ride, you know, nothing's life is guaranteed, but every risk you take is worthwhile. And that roller coaster ride, every stop that comes down, there's a lesson. Yeah. We don't know what that lesson is. But we take those stops to learn something along the way. And those stops could be a career that you get into that you didn't like, you know, but there's some type of art within it. And so everything that I'm learning, you know, in this journey that that is becoming into who I am today is something that has happened or transpired in my past, you know, and you just learn from it. And you they say you can test a man by him falling down, but his true honor is when how he get up. Can you get up?

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Yeah, and you get up. And you're you're really touching here on on a big part of what our our whole concept is, and that's the becoming part. And that's another thing that makes people kind of look at you like, huh? That three hit thing, you know, when you when you say, you know, who did like you know where you are right now, you know the level of of um success that you have gained, accomplishments that you've been able to achieve. And uh one of the questions we love to ask is so who looking back now, it's harder to look forward. And it's not, and that's a process. You can't do that right here in a question. We've discovered that from asking the question. So we're looking at now from more the past, but looking back on that journey, who did you have to become along the way? That inside thing, not what did you have to do? Who did you have to become in here to get you where you are today? Can you articulate that?

Core Values And Love As Craft

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Who do I've had to become? Yeah, I would think my mother. I'm serious because what a what a magnificent woman. I mean, to bear, it would have been 18 children, but to bear 15 and to you how many characters is coming in the house, and she had to be sane enough to deal with all of us, not alone a husband. Yeah, yeah, she really is 16. Yeah, you're really 16. But the strength of a woman and the strength of someone who knows you don't always just say know yourself, but you can know that there's something that you can get out of it that's if you keep going. And that's something that you know you will learn, something that you will learn about yourself if you keep pushing. You know, so just the strength of that woman pushes me to be who I am today.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

So you're describing determination, persistence, yes, resilience. Courage rolled in there somewhere. Yeah, yeah, courage, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Keep pushing, bravery, yeah. Mm-hmm. Honor, because it takes that too. You know, because you gotta trust yourself and honor, you know, you gotta believe in yourself.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

Yeah. Now, looking back, did you know in the early years that you needed to focus consciously focus on becoming those things? Or is it now looking back, you see that you did that kind of unconsciously?

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Yes. Looking back, yeah, that's a scary scene. You look back, but you know, you learned a lot. And I think that that helped mold who I am today. Um, not being afraid of mistakes, you know, errors, you know, that's part of growth. That's development, that's discovery. You're discovering some new things about yourself. You're gonna continue to discover new things about yourself. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, reflect on all those moments, you know, good and bad. You know, you reflect on all those.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

We we believe this becoming conversation is a vital part of our life as a creative. And our conversation is about taking it out of the unconscious and bringing it into the conscious and intentional, you know, because now, you know, we won't ask this question today for you to answer, but we'll ask it for you to think about as you move beyond our conversation today. And that is, you know, what got you here won't get you there. That next stage, that next step, who do you have to become now to get there? And like I said, that's a pro that's a process. So we don't ask it as a question anymore, other than just something for you to reflect on and ponder about as you move forward. It's kind of a not that we're ready to part right now, but it's a parting gift that we are doing in our episodes because it's it just starts something that has, if you follow the trail, has a beautiful ending.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yeah, it has many layers, and there's it's a well that you can keep drawing from.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

You know, I I really do believe that we get to choose who we are, and we get to choose how we show up in life. There's a lot of things that that we don't get to choose, but those two things we get to choose, and those two things influence everything that we experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

The new ideas, um, the material that you use for those my uh ideas all makes you. You know, you don't just sometimes just go out and pick out something to create something. That's the reason why you pick that, whether it's the color, the shape of it, the object itself, it's it's those things that create art.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

That those things are very connected to our thoughts, our feelings, all of that.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

What emotion came out of it when you thought of it?

SPEAKER_03 19:38

Yeah, I've I've come to believe that creating is it's a like a form of meditation and it's very connected to our mental, emotional, spiritual health, and well-being. Yeah. It tells a lot about us as we as we create what we're creating, tells a lot about what's going on inside of us at the time that we're doing that creating.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Yeah.

unknown 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

It can be very healing.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

It is, it can be methodical. And it's a it's a uh forward thinking, you know. Um, we don't know what tomorrow holds, but it's that curiosity that gets us to the next day to see what's gonna happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:25

Exactly. So tell us a little bit about how community plays into your creative journey.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

I can think of what I'm learning the new create creativity of community today versus how it was in the future, I mean the past. I mean, we we had a community where no one had an issue with chastising or you know, having a thought to say something to your kid when they were wrong. And so much came out of that where you say you realize when you say, before you got in trouble, you you know, you let me let me get up right, let me do right, let me do the right thing. And it was more of fun, it was more of gathering together, community, working on the same thing, building. And now it's like finding those communities that does that, giving that helping hand, lending that that father figure, lending that mother figure to be able to build and pull out what these kids need today, or just you know what anyone needs today to just continue to go.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Yeah, it's it's either finding it or it's building it, one of the two. Yeah, absolutely. If you can't find what you're looking for, build it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

I think that you were uniquely positioned coming from such a large family to draw on tools that may come a little harder to people who weren't as fortunate.

Becoming: Strength Learned From Her Mother

SPEAKER_00 21:59

I believe that. Um I think back just when you say you you look at what your parents did do for you, and I'm grateful because I know that there are situations where even then parents didn't have some of those things to give to their kids. And to see that my father did everything he could to make sure we did. Yeah, I'm very appreci appreciative of that. I'm very appreciative. Yeah. They were special souls for sure, weren't they? Absolutely. And so that's why when I talk to people and I share, you know, I have no problem sharing them what my experiences was with my parents because I know you never know who it might help. And it takes that conversation, that one conversation to help someone get through that day. We never know what a person wakes up in their mind to the thought. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

That's true. So what experience, I mean, I know you've only been in in your big creative mode for about a year and a half, you said, but what have there been any kind of collaborations or anything where you have worked with another artist or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 23:17

I have. And different types of forms to be able to do that, but it's the learning curve that I am in. You know, it's a learning, and I'm okay with learning. And but it's learning to be able to evolve just other things around just what you have. And you don't know who it may touch. You know, me creating something different may give the view of someone else like, oh I didn't know that, I didn't see that. But I think that collaborating is good. You know, two minds come with something, you know, very different, very unique, touching.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

I think I think it can be an integral part of our our journey, and and yet we find in in most of our conversations there's a lot of isolation in the creative community. People work in isolation, that's true. And they don't don't really have much community around them. Um so how did you come by this collaboration? How did that how did that manifest?

SPEAKER_00 24:38

Um, I think it was someone who saw my work and saw how detailed that I am in my work. And it's more of just expression, it's it's shaping art. Um it's a vision, it's a story, and I believe in telling a story, you know, through art. And they ask, you know, have I thought about you know, expanding on what you have, not just staying in a box, not staying in that frame. And that was a good thought, like, oh yeah, let me expand out of my frame and see what what happens. And yeah, it took on.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

Brandy, what scale is your art right now mostly? Is it is it smaller pieces or is it really large? Large pieces. Large pieces.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Yeah, like 36 by 36. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Okay. So incorporating wood in that could make it really, really heavy, really fast.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

It can make it heavy, but also can tell a story. And we see the ages of the wood, the bark, you know.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Well, and beyond just what could be found wood, you also could cut and create three-dimensional things that yeah, there's some cool tools out there for now. We I've I've been looking at a um I think it's called a hoxo. No, I'm not sure. Yeah, but it's a handheld tool. It won't cut big tree limbs or anything like that, but it'll it'll cut valsa wood and the the lighter forms of wood where you can literally just carve things uh and and make whatever you want, and then put holes in it and weave it into your art with your yarn. I mean, yeah, the sky is the limited.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Stack it up. Yeah, you can stack it up. It's 3D. Most of my art now is 3D, and I love it. I love that you you can come and touch it, you can feel it, you see it.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

Now you said 36 by 36. Do you do this and weave it into a canvas or is it matted on board or what?

SPEAKER_00 26:46

It's matted on the frame. I have the frame made, and uh I matted on the frame.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

So is it a is this the surface when you say matted, is it a solid like a canvas, or does it have individual threads running across like a web that's around?

SPEAKER_00 27:05

No, it's a thin piece of wood. It's a thin piece of wood. Cradle board. Got it. That way it helps on the size and and the weight of it.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

I love it. I love cradleboard. Oh my god, I love cradleboard.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Yeah. And you can build a frame, you know, even if it's damaged a little bit, that gives character. And then even depending on how the frame is, that helps me create an idea. So if I have something rugged at the end, then make that more power of my art.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

Yeah, make it strong. You know, I bet you could also rummage around in in garage sales and places and buy old frames, yeah, and put a backing behind it. Um, so many options.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Yeah, and and I spray paint it. I spray I spray paint it to meet my what my design is. Yeah, I can just spray paint one half of it and be something different, you know.

Art As Healing, Meditation, And Curiosity

SPEAKER_03 28:06

I love that. You're you're highly creative, you got a lot of ideas and you're fearless, girl. You'll just try anything, won't you?

SPEAKER_00 28:13

That's because, yes, I will. That's because I'm in the siblings. You know, I told you there's so many characteristics in their head, so you can go over a lot of things.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

Come over with a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 28:24

You know, with what one of the things that I'm I'm kind of hearing a theme come out in your conversation, and it is play. You you make your work. I that's what I'm sensing, that you just play.

SPEAKER_04 28:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

You know, I I think sometimes we get so serious about our art. Um, and there's a lot of things that show up there, you know, we we're we're comparing our art to other people's art and and we're operating from a place of gee, am I good enough? Is my work good enough? And and this built in kind of this fear to this pressure and to perform. And and and are we going to be criticized so we feel unsafe? And it kills all the fun. Yes, kills the play. And and then and then we feel blocked. Yeah.

unknown 29:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

So how do you how do you stay in that play and not get sucked into the varying different things that could take it to a a serious place where it would be less fun? How how how do you manage that?

SPEAKER_00 29:29

I think because I use a lot of color. Color is, I love color. And uh in most of well, pretty much all of my art is color. Whether it's red, future, purple, black, green, loud, yellow.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

I love color.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

I love color. And what it was color, it's it's it's fun. My mother used to say, you know, when people feel blue, we're colors, we're all other colors. So when people feel down, you enlighten them with color. You know, when you build you, when you're buying a home, they say, Oh, it's dull white, you know, it's no feel, it's not feeling like home. You add a lot of colors like, oh, it pops. Just because you put a little gray in there.

unknown 30:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

You put a little blue in there, it pops now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

My our our house is very colorful.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

And I want to roll back a little bit when Maddox, when you were talking about how play is is what came to mind. Um, I'm reminded of the the seven levers of creativity uh that are in Never Play It Safe. Play is one of them. It's a big one. And it made me reflect on a lot of the other things that you've shared uh that kind of speak to the others that are in there. So one of them that's a big one is time. And uh I think time is relevant because you've you've been at this for a relatively short time in the grand scheme of your life, right? Last year and a half you've been active in this. But it you've also had to bring them all to the table. Uh you've uh this is where you've focused your attention. You've used intuition to try to weave in you know different things that you might try, and you know, trusting your gut to to go different directions and and it's all just been a a practice. And I think one thing that I I think is not really getting a lot of attention is uh even though we might have hinted at it, failure is one of those things too, and it can be the best teacher. Um what are uh some moments where you've had to take the hard lesson?

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Yeah, and when you say that I can relate that to time, and you said timing is everything. I relate failure with time. Um, just because you come up with a piece doesn't mean that's right for that time. And someone might see it and it's not timing. And then two weeks later you take it at another event on good timing, and someone loved it. And to uh when you say failure, uh like I said, my father always taught her, you know, that's just somebody else's yes. So that's what gets me to keep pushing because that's somebody else, that's just somebody else's yes, you know. But um, yeah, that's somebody else's yes.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

I love that framing. I I love how you have such a positive frame around how you approach everything.

SPEAKER_03 32:38

Yeah, you you you really have um I don't even know what word I'm trying to come up with. It's like there's a stability um that you you just have put some things in place in your life that you you you don't let the turkeys get you down, as the saying goes. I I can tell you you talk with a conviction that lets me know that you're a person who gets up every morning and you decide what your day's gonna be like.

SPEAKER_04 33:10

I do.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

I mean, I just sense that from you. I'm an empath and I really sense that. So, Brandy, is art full time for you? No.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Unfortunately, no. My full time is IT. And I think that's because uh again, that's a creative side of me. Just want to know why something doesn't work. Um, building code, uh, understanding that code that's still art. You know, what is it for and what's the result of it? Yeah. Do you enjoy that? I do. I do building something and seeing the result of it, seeing it work, seeing it functions. Yeah, I I do like it.

Community Then And Now

SPEAKER_03 33:53

We have not had very many guests that did the creative thing and a full-time job and loved both, but we have had a few. And um I think that we, I mean, I I believe this. We because of the way schools work, your your answer is either right or wrong. You know, when we get tested. And I I think we we're conditioned from a very early age to it's an either-or. And what I've learned in my life is that's bullshit. It's an it's only an either-or if you choose it to be an either-or. It's an and. You're an and you love your art and you love your job. It's an and. And when we think like that, we can change our experience and have more ands. Absolutely. You know, I Dwight has a better grasp of this because he's got a memory like a steel trap, but the elephant. I can an elephant. I can think of at least two other guests that talked about, you know, loving their job and wouldn't give up their job to go full-time with their art. And and not because of the money or the security, but one gentleman said, you know, I made the decision that I could have more than one passion. I have a passion for my my job. He he works for Microsoft.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Oh, and for our listeners, uh, that would be episode number 25 featuring Tony Hale.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Tony Hale the third.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

Yeah, Tony Hale the third, because there's another Tony Hale. He's not the guy on beat.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

He's he's got the the numbers of all these episodes memorized. Thank God he does, because I sure should go. But yes, and then there was another one that said, you know, I love my job. And he's he's in a financial world because it makes me appreciate the time that I get to be creative even more. If I didn't have a job and I could be creative all the time, I wouldn't appreciate it as much. So when I'm at my job, I'm like thinking, oh my god, I'm so excited to go be creative. And I thought that was such a wonderful okay, episode episode 37 featuring Curtis Trant. Yes. I thought that was such a wonderful way to look at it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Well, it's all it's all the the frame, the well, I mean, we have a choice. You know, there are things that are in our control. And I I've seen uh a lot of people I've worked with, they're really stuck when they when they always say, I'll be happy when. And I I ask them, well, what's it gonna take for you to not waste so much energy and make that a little shorter? Just say, I'll be happy.

SPEAKER_03 36:52

Yeah. Or or I'm happy now because I choose to be happy now because, or whatever. So, Brandy, is there a family? Do you have a do you have a maid and children?

SPEAKER_00 37:02

Or I don't one day wish for thinking from your mouth to God's ears.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

Well, and you know, as we say, timing is everything. So right now your your time is doing exactly what you're doing. Absolutely. You know, when you make the best of it. When when you're ready, that person will show up. I I've I've lived that in my own life. Yeah, absolutely. I believe that. I I I wish that I had known that at an earlier age, so I would have been more patient.

SPEAKER_04 37:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:36

You know, I I was really impatient for a long time and I tried to force lots of square pegs into round holes.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

Yeah, and it don't work.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

It it does not work, and it's painful, just like you would expect. It's painful.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Well, you're you're reminded. It is. I I'm reminded as as Maddox is sharing that pain of how I've I've seen in so many traditions that we're we're taught patience, we're taught to have that sense of being okay with what is, you know, not to not to time travel too much and be too worried about what's going to happen in the future because everything is happening right on time. And I I too have had those experiences where as an impatient youth, I just wanted so badly to get past what I thought was such a rough patch. I mean, I I remember uh having a rather uncomfortable conversation with a chaplain when I was enlisted. I was in the Army during Don't Ask, Don't Tell. And we we both couldn't actually talk about what I was talking about. And uh it was kind of a slap in the face, but also exactly what I needed to hear when this really cool motorcycle chaplain said uh something to the effect of, oh, this too shall pass. You know, it's it may seem really big right now, but just let it go. It'll be fine. He was absolutely right, but in that moment I was so frustrated.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

You know, and the thing about it is sitting in that moment because I feel like if you don't sit in that moment, you won't learn that lesson.

unknown 39:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

And you're gonna come back a full circle until you learn that moment.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

If you sit in it, maybe it's just a moment. If you don't sit in it, it can be a lifetime. Absolutely. My my mom all of my life said this too shall pass, and I always found such comfort in that. Because it didn't take very long after she'd said it a few times that I looked back and saw that yes, indeed, it it always did pass. If you just, you know, held on, it passed. Yep.

Collaboration, Scale, And 3D Materials

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Yeah, it's it's funny. I I'm totally cool with it now, but I I remember that feeling of just just being so in it and so frustrated.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Yeah. You know, um, one of my uh uh mentors said to me once, I I was like, I so ecstatic about one of my pieces. And I was looking at it, I was like, oh, I know if something else could be right. I said, you know what? I'm I stress myself out. And normally what I do is I send my art to a few people that's in a circle and get their opinion, like, okay, what you think? Because I'm am I overthinking this? And I had I gotten to the point where it was affecting me when I say where that was not saying that it shouldn't, or that I should listen, because you want that advice, you want that critical, you know, the uh I guess opinion about it. And someone said, Oh, you should take it off, you know, it it's pinpoint, it was always something, or take it off, take it off. And my mentor said uh to me, art is not perfect. So you have to allow yourself to love where you are because it's not perfect, yeah. And it's subjective. That corner is cut, right? It's not perfect.

SPEAKER_03 41:08

Yeah, you know what you're describing, asking a circle of people to give you feedback. That's a form of collaboration, that's community. You wouldn't ask them if you didn't trust them. Yeah, yeah, but you also have to realize that it's not perfect, yes, and and not trust them to give you good feedback, yeah, you know, but trust them to give you honest feedback, trust them to be kind and not, you know, haters or yeah, unnecessarily judgmental or critical. That's definitely a form of community. I love that. I I think we would all benefit from that. I have I I most of my interaction with art and community right now is I'm in several online groups where we post our images and we give feedback, or somebody will say, I'm having this problem, I can't figure out how to do this. And if I know how to do it, I'll I'll chime in and say, Well, here's I'm not saying it's the way, I'm saying it's what I learned. You know, the other day somebody said, Can I do this on this and this? And she was talking about mixing mediums and was it gonna be, you know, were they gonna play well together? And I was like, I don't know. So I went in and I did a test. You know, I created this whole little, you know, and create did a test and then went back online and said, Well, I just did a test and here's what I learned. And it was so fun to do that and share that with other people.

SPEAKER_00 42:42

And the value in that because I'm pretty sure they took something back from it, you know, your takeaway.

SPEAKER_03 42:48

There was one person that said, Thank you so much for this. Yeah. I mean, I got a bunch of likes, you know, but there was one person that really showed appreciation. Like I had just solved a problem for them. Yeah. Right. Yeah, you know, it when we can rely on people around us, everything gets better. Not just our our creativity, not just our art, our life.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Right. Well, and and it's all about showing up. I I love the way that you were talking about how you got into places because you knocked on doors, you made the phone calls, and you you took the message that the the no doesn't mean never. It's just not right now.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

It was somebody else's yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Yes. Somebody else's yes. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 43:37

I I love clarifying for the the benefit of the listener. So you got in a gallery and you called around and talked to different galleries. Did you know any of those gallery owners, or was this a cold call? Cold call. Didn't know any of them.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Oh, good for you. Wow. But of course, you know, some of them, uh, you know, some of them want you to send some of your artists to make sure that you're not just joking around, or you got something worth valuing, or looking at, or speaking on a a conversation piece. And uh yeah. Yeah, didn't know them.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

I really admire your courage.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

Well, it's next level. A lot of people are wounded very easily at the slightest hint. Of rejection.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

Yeah. Okay. I want your take on something. Because this is a conversation that we kind of have, and we all see things a little bit differently. But do you believe that it's more important to put your art out there? Or do you believe it's more important to put yourself out there? Or do you think that it's really a combination thereof? And why?

SPEAKER_00 44:54

I think it's a combination of both. I think um, like now, even during this interview, this is this these things are new to me when it comes to art. But I think it's the passion within doing the homework yourself that speaks to that fear of no or anything like that. So I think it's a combination of both. Uh just putting your work out there is important as well. Because if you don't, who's gonna say it? Anybody can speak to it. You have a lot of people that are visual. You got a lot of people that you just tell them and they can think about it and say, Oh, I I get what you're saying. But there's a lot of people that's visual to see, okay, you tell me that this is mixed media, but what is it? You know, but when they see it, they can feel it. Oh, they think they got your art. Like how I do my art. Someone can say, Oh, that's Brandy's art. Because it's the process of what I put in to do it. But if I can't speak to it, then how will somebody know? So I think it's a combination of both. Is one easier or harder than the other? I'm getting I believe so, because I think putting my art out there, that's just someone that's passing it, that's streaming it, someone sending it out. But when you come and speak to your art, it's that level of comfort are the uncomfortableness of being outspoken, being able to talk about the things that you're building, creating, designing. So, and and I think it helps build your character. Take off the edge.

SPEAKER_03 46:29

Oh yes. Oh, yes. You know, I I think that there are, I mean, we're all looking for art collectors, right? If we're creating, we're we're looking for art collectors. And I think there is a a percentage of art collectors that they see art, they go, Oh my god, I love that, and they buy it. And they don't care about the artist.

SPEAKER_04 46:50

Yeah.

Play, Color, And Keeping Joy Alive

SPEAKER_03 46:50

And then I think there are some that they might see art and cool art here and there, but if they don't get to meet the artist and really know the process, they won't buy the art. Yeah. And then I think there's per people that may do both. I'm a person who does both. I bought art just for the art, didn't really care about the artist. It just spoke to me so deeply that I had to have that. And then there's others that I have purchased because there was this deep meaning in the artist's life behind it and knowing that story um just it meant a lot. It meant a lot.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Um there's a a lot there. And um, I've I've started reading a book uh called Your Brain on Art, How the Arts Transform Us. And it gets into uh a little bit of how we learn and how how we we better encode things and art, uh creativity of of any form has a way of being able to make things have more meaning and and be stickier. And I I believe when it comes to that question of uh do we just buy the art or do we do we um need to have some connection to the story? I think that every layer that you can you can add uh and every way that you can experience it, and and Brandy, your pieces have uh additional things for us to latch on to because there's I mean it's something that you can touch, so it engages another sense that a a lot of pieces that we see, you know, we're always told don't touch the art. Um and there's so such rich information in it because you have the uh the the contrast of the textures being hard and soft, and you're able to latch on to something that's other dimensions that others don't have, and and being able to have a form like this where you can share your story that helps to weave a narrative that's attached to those pieces as well.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

And it helps tell the story.

SPEAKER_03 49:03

Yes. I think so too. And you know, if there's people that buy because it's beautiful and people that buy because they know your your story behind it, let's just say that's 50-50. If you choose one, you leave 50% on the table, you're leaving money on the table. If you choose the other one, you're leaving leaving 50% on the table. It makes sense to put your your art out there and yourself out there. So well, and and that sounds largely what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

Yeah, I am. And and that's networking. And I always say I step out of my comfort zone to do things that I normally wouldn't do because it helps out in the long run. When you network in a uncomfortable environment, you don't know who's in that environment. You don't know who they're connected to. So if one if I pass a card to someone about my artwork, they might have a cousin, a boss, or someone that they know that's connected to art, who loves art.

SPEAKER_03 50:07

You you never know when you're only one connection away from that um that big collector that is gonna fall in love with what you got going on.

SPEAKER_00 50:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

Yeah. So Brandy, do you have through your experience, and not just in creativity, because you do other things and and and you've been doing life a lot longer than you've been doing this last year and a half of art, what words of wisdom would you like to share with our listeners? Anything you'd like to share that that that you've learned that we haven't already covered?

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Persistence. I think is very vital to um understanding yourself and act of act of service. I like making the next person happy, joyful, uh sharing something that you know we don't like I say, we don't know what the next person is going through. So if there's anything that I can say, give or bill for the next person and it helps them, I'll be willing to do it.

SPEAKER_03 51:19

This is something else the world has kind of lost sight of. And this is big. I'm I'm like you, Brandy, I'm very acts of service person. I I was born with a servant's heart. I didn't learn that language for it until I was much older, but I came into the world with a servant's heart. When I was a child, my mom would say, she'd shake her head and say, Oh my god, you care so much. She didn't understand. She saw it, she could see it, but she didn't really understand.

SPEAKER_00 51:49

You know how when um I know this is political, so I'm in a sense when people say racism is not exist, it's not you don't born, you're not born, it's taught. So when you see something out there with uh, like I said, act of kindness, you just do and I when I we growing up, that's all we saw with my parents. We can be traveling because my as you know, like I said 15 was we not we weren't all at the house at the same time, but if you have siblings that was in college, where the other ones are in, you know, junior school or you know, grade school, my dad had to travel to go make sure they were okay with their cars or whatever they need while they was in college. And while we're going on the weekends to visit them, if my father saw somebody, him being a mechanic, if he saw somebody on the side of the road, no matter what it is, he's stopping. So you see that. So kin is taught.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

Yeah.

Time, Failure, And The Right Moment

SPEAKER_03 52:51

Yeah. My my dad was a lot like that too. We stopped a few times. I can remember as a child, we were on a road trip and we came across a big, big buck, a deer that was hung up in a bob wire fence. And he had laid there and thrashed back and forth until he'd completely scraped the ground clean with his horns thrashing back and forth, trying to get free, no telling how long he had been there. My dad, we pulled over and he got out, got in the trunk and got out some tools and he went and worked and worked until he finally cut that buck free. Yeah. Of course, I'm I'm a little kid who loved animals and I'm screaming, can we take him home? Can we take him home? But I've I've never forgotten that, you know. And then that buck, when that buck got free, he darted off into the distance. And right as he got to the edge of the woods, he stopped and he looked back and he just stared at my dad for a moment, and then he went on into the the woods. It was it felt like he was looking back and saying, Yes, I've never forgotten it.

SPEAKER_00 53:59

Yeah. I say kind, it's just taught.

SPEAKER_01 54:03

It is taught. Well, and uh its opposite is taught, it's modeled a lot more these days. And I I see that in the world, people have been uh they've been taught to become more transactional. And I I think that sows the seeds for a great deal of suspicion. And it makes it so that when people confront when they're confronted with kindness, they don't know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:36

Well, I'm afraid with everything that's going on in our world right now. I mean, it I don't every day I get anywhere from a dozen to two dozen scam emails, phone calls, text messages. You know, when somebody shows up now with kindness, we're we're a little, you know, yeah, is this real? You know, we're we're a little suspicious because we've been hit so hard in the last few years with people that just want to take advantage of us. Wish it wasn't so, but it is.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 55:09

Brandy.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

And that's why I'm saying art is you gotta think art and put art in everything.

SPEAKER_03 55:15

Yes, yes, because it heals. It does. It it it can. I I've said for some time now that I believe that creatives are the people who have the power to heal humanity, to guide humanity to healing. And bringing them together, you unity, yes, yes, yes, unity and collaboration, and yes, do all of the above. This has been amazing.

SPEAKER_00 55:43

Thank you. Yes, it has.

SPEAKER_03 55:45

Really enjoyed the conversation. Thanks so much for all you brought to our listeners. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

I just want to acknowledge you for what a great head you have on your shoulders. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And and and your, you know, your mom and dad for all they gave to you and your siblings.

SPEAKER_03 56:12

What a gift. Thank you. Like no, we don't all get that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 56:17

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 56:19

Yeah, it's beautiful.