We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Beverly Burris. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Beverly below.

Beverly , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

When I was 12 I knew I wanted to be an artist and my dad helped me make that dream concreate by encouraging me to learn to mix paint and draw in my spare time. Dardanelle Middle School encouraged me to teach art when I was 13 years old by having me assist at an after school art class for elementary school children, and I have wanted to teach ever since. By the time I was in high school I was creating and painting sets for my high school and got enough courage to act in a hand full of shows.
Once I was in college for Technical Theater, at 20 years old, I was eager to work in a professional setting and quickly accepted a callback to be a scenic artist intern at the Arizona Broadway Theater in Peoria, Arizona.
I learned how to take direction from other creative individuals, as well as mix paint at a higher level. The internship was 12 hours a day, most days, and involved a high degree of communication between members of the technical side of the theater. I’m easy to work with in groups because of this experience. At this internship I painted oil paintings from references and huge backdrops in the same summer. It was a crash course into how chaotic and rewarding an artists life can be. After that summer I worked in theaters in Portland, Oregon until I became a full time studio artist. It was easy to get to know studio artists from the experience I had with different artists in the theater scene.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Beverly Burris and I am from Delaware, Arkansas. I now live in the greater Houston, Texas area and am a local artist. Art has been a big part of my life since I was a child because my family has a history of artists in our family. My grandmother Beverley Jean Aadams and my Dad, Bruce Burris, were both visual artists and poets, but never pursued the crafts. I was encouraged from a young age to create and anything I created was beautiful to my family. With that encouragement I decided that I was an artist and I wanted that title and it was a gift. Surrealism is one of my favorite art genres and I create surreal paintings and drawings from my subconscious mind. In addition to creating studio art I also love to teach so I also provide art party class services and fun face painting for children’s parties. In the future my website will have webinars for art and yoga classes. I provide my clients with peace of mind knowing that what they create at my art parties will be something they will love to take home and that my body art will be skillfully and dedicatedly crafted to the individual. It makes me proud to know that I put a lot of hard work and effort into my work and I want everyone to know that my work represents my dreams that are used to help with connection. It is hard for me to connect so being creative is a huge blessing from God.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There are many lessons I have learned in life, but the biggest one that I had to unlearn was that people are not safe to be around. I was raised in a childhood that was highly adverse so it was taught to me that people could not be trusted, and as a result I did not have many friends and it was really hard for me to communicate how I felt.
Trusting people and opening myself up to accept new friendships and even end them has been a very long road but it is getting easier as time goes by. Connection is important to all humans and it helps to use my art to connect with other people. I have even used my art to help me to connect to family members and my son when I could not find words to express myself.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Bringing community together is very important to me and makes me feel safe and needed/wanted. Without the church community helping me grow up, in Dardanelle and Delaware Arkansas, I would be a different person today. Art brings people together and sparks up conversations that would have not been brought up otherwise. My goal is to continue to communicate through my art but on a different level than I had in the past. I would like to use my art to communicate feelings of joy and hope instead of fear, anxiety, and depression. When I was first creating my themes were very sad because that what I felt inside. Presently, I would like to communicate the goodness inside of me so that it comes out of me more and I would like to encourage other talented artists to do the same. What we could make, or think up, in the dark surely would look better in the light. Sharing our joy and pain is what life is all about. With my degree in sociology I would like to help make a healthier art community for Houston, Texas and possibly the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beverlyjburris.com
• Instagram: bevjeanburris
• Other: TikTok beverlyburris00

Image Credits

Rosalina Lopez
www.rosalinalopez.photography