My Portfolio

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I was born in 1996, so the decade of Brittany’s. My parents, although jumping on the bandwagon, tried to spice it up by adding an extra letter. I grew up surrounded by Brittanys, and because of that, I do not feel a sense of self when it comes to my name. Honestly, I grew up feeling invisible because of this. The Brittany being called on was never the Brittaney with the “e.” When I was little, I convinced myself that the “e” stood for eyes. From a young age, I tasked myself with the job of watcher. Looking back, it was almost an obsession. I watched everyone’s mannerisms, how they treated people, how they talked, their expressions, etc. I would watch people to the point that I would know exactly what they’d do in certain situations. It was like a game for me. Ultimately, I ended up discovering that you can learn something valuable from every single person you encounter in life. Everyone is a walking and breathing lesson. That lesson can be something worth striving for or avoiding altogether. This also helped me come to terms with the fact that I have an overly curious and active imagination. 

I am fully and wholly an individual who works with their hands. This is one of the main reasons I am so drawn to ceramics, doing what I can to prove myself in that given medium. As a child, I was always in mud, whether making mud pies or little characters. Because of this, I have something to look back on and appreciate how far I have come. My younger self was drawn to mud for a reason, and I am proud to bring it to fruition through ceramics. I am enamored by the versatility and intimacy that this medium possesses. If I cannot find a way, I will make one. I hold great pride in my persistence.

The main reason I am so drawn to ceramics is honestly because of death. I was introduced to death at a very young age. As I struggled to understand it, I found great comfort in the act and notion of returning our bodies to the earth. It gave me the sensation that the people I have lost are still with me because no matter where I was, with each step I took, they were there to support me. As I aged, I began to wonder how much of a life was in each particle of dirt. It wasn’t just my loved ones, but countless others. I was so fascinated with the fact that at any moment I could be in contact with a dinosaur, mammoth, or another person. Something or someone that lived, fought, hurt, and loved. Everything that they were absorbed into the earth. Now I wonder if that is why, as ceramicists, we say “clay remembers." It isn’t simply cracks or stress, but also every ounce of what and who is a part of it. 

This notion drives me to create figurative statement pieces. I am drawn to the idea of giving a face to who or what could be in the clay. Imagining who they were and how they’d like to be represented. Typically, I focus on larger-scale works while occasionally exploring ways of making them functional. Recently, I have been exploring the expressions of different emotions. I have been drawn to the idea of being able to understand someone based on what they express. Emotions do not discriminate, and it is a language of its own. One that we are all fluent in. 

My art is funky, but that is what I am drawn to. I enjoy exaggerations and being expressive. When working with clay, I create people as I see them. A little ugly. I draw attention to and exaggerate features in an intentionally simplified manner. Human beings are weird little creations, but that does not mean there is no beauty in them. Nearly everyone is overly focused on their outward physical appearance, resulting in their inward appearance faltering. Why is it that, as a people, we are unable to appreciate our chub, wrinkles, veins, and other outward appearances? These very things show that we have lived, and these “faults” should be appreciated because they tell a wonderful story. Not a single person is perfect, inside or out, and never will be. It is an unattainable fixation. This is why I depict people in the manner that I do because we should all still love, appreciate, and accept each other for all our "ugly." As well as draw focus to the idea that no one truly knows who an individual is. Depicting people in different ways that you wouldn’t normally expect is eye-opening, in my opinion. We all have different versions of ourselves, whether we show them or not. 

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