Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brett Cassort. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Brett, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I started to take my art career seriously as a profession later in life and that really has worked for me. Although I’ve been creative my entire life, drawing from an early age and then moving into other mediums and paint later on gave me the time to figure out who I was and what I wanted to say. I received a great piece of advice from an artist that was making a living at it and that was simply, “There is no single blueprint for success in this business, every path is different.” I’ve coupled that with another great piece of advice I’ve gotten, “Just stay in your lane”.  Do what you do, block out the noise and focus on what you want to create.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve always had a creative mind and loved working with my hands, but a career as an artist wasn’t something I was planning at an early age. I grew up in a small town in Northern N.Y. on the Canadian Border where there were probably more cows than people. I never imagined leaving, but I had trouble figuring out what I wanted to do so after high school I went to college. Three colleges, five majors, and the death of a close childhood friend later and I was back in my hometown with little direction. With some good fortune through a friend I had the opportunity to go to work in a new program at the local Hydro-Electric Dam where I worked through an apprenticeship and became a Millright. I worked that job for over a decade, but in that time I knew that wasn’t my life. I felt like I was going to put my life on cruise control for 25-30 years and retire. That isn’t a bad thing, I had great benefits, job security, retirement and the best of everything you could have in life and I was fortunate. It just wasn’t who I was or what I wanted.

Fast forward to leaving my hometown for a business opportunity in California that didn’t go as planned and I found myself at a crossroads. I had heard about the Kline Academy of Fine Art and I decided to check it out for myself which lead to 5 years of Classical Study with Cheryl Kline. That is what propelled me into this profession.

I’ve been a big believer in just putting your head down and getting to work and trying to create your opportunities.  Nobody is going to do it for you.  With every opportunity you learn something so take the lesson it’s giving you and adjust as needed.  You take advantage of good fortune and luck when they come your way and grind through the moments of adversity. Just keep moving forward, stay curious, and see how many “No’s” you can collect along the way. Sooner or later you’ll hear a few “Yes’s” and you never know where they will lead until you explore them. I still get plenty of denial letters from shows and exhibitions, I embrace them because that just means I’m closer to the next Yes. Keep knocking on doors, eventually one will get answered.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As fast as you can gain momentum in this business, you can lose it even faster! That’s really what this year has taught me. I had been accepted and done multiple shows over the past few years and some worked out better than others. Going into this year I had the chance to be part of the LA Art Show and be on more of an International stage. I sold a couple of original works and then followed it up a month later with a successful result as part of a group show in San Francisco. I had gained collectors and I was being approached by media outlets for interviews including the cover of a magazine. I rolled that momentum into another group show in Seattle over the summer and in the blink of a 4 day show I was devastated. There were no new collectors, no sales, and barely much foot traffic. I had followed advice from the promoters that the Seattle Market was a similar market to San Francisco and it clearly wasn’t. A large investment and all that momentum was just gone. I got a hard reminder that the artworld is tough to predict, but there are definitely people out there, promoters, galleries, etc. that talk a good game, but have very little interest in you beyond your money. I had to pick myself up and dust myself off and get back to creating new work. Since then I’ve done multiple local shows in LA, created a successful fundraising campaign for an important cause and I’ve been in my studio working on 3 new series of work that I will debut in 2024.  Lesson learned, do your own extensive due diligence on opportunities to evaluate the risk/reward, despite what info you’re getting from the people that should know.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I’ve had people tell me how my work has helped them deal with tough times in their lives and keep them moving forward. From struggles with mental health and depression, drug addiction, to grieving the loss of a loved one and more. I was really blown away when people started telling me their stories about how my work had that kind of impact on their lives. Never in a million years did that thought cross my mind before I started putting my work out into the public.

When I started putting my work out in the world beyond my family and friends, I was just hoping people might like it. Then when that validation came in from strangers it was great, but then to hear the personal stories people had connecting to my work has become the most rewarding gift to me.  It’s a nice reminder of what my parents instilled in me, to go out in this world and do some good.  I know they’re both watching over me with a smile.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brettcassort.com
• Instagram: @brettcassortfineart
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/brettcassortfineart
• Other: Email [email protected]

Image Credits
Nathan Quinton Sebakijje @nqsphotos