We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bianca Brandolino. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bianca below.
Bianca, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
So I actually realized that art – and specifically painting, was what I wanted to do when I was about eight years old. I was a pencil-in-hand kind of kid, always drawing on whatever I could get my hands on. Seeing this, my mom took me on a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago where I instantly became enamored with a Monet painting; one of his Haystacks series. I was absolutely amazed that I could go up close to the painting and see thick, individual brush strokes of bright pink and lemon yellow and then I could stand a yard back from the painting and see a full developed image. I decided right then and there that I wanted to be a painter, and being an artist became my dream job. In high school I came to the realization that it would be really difficult to make painting a full time career, so I decided to take some graphic design courses in high school, thinking that I could use my artistic eye for things like product design or book covers. I pursued that aspiration into college, where I got into the graphic design program at Peck School of the Arts and pushed forward.
One day however, I had this realization that I would truly be missing out and not acknowledging my own creative needs if I didn’t also pursue painting and drawing in college. So I immediately set up an appointment with my advisor and he helped me schedule my coursework so that I could double major in painting and drawing alongside my graphic design coursework. I stuck around college for an additional year, consuming anything and everything in my painting classes – and finally found myself growing as an artist in the ways that I’d always dreamed.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a visual artist and designer, currently working in between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. The breadth of my work extends from large scale abstract paintings to comic zines about finding silver linings in the day to day human experience, as well as hand-made, hand-painted jewelry and wearables. I explore a variety of mediums in the creation of my work, but have found that narrative storytelling through accessible mediums like zines have become one of the more successful and relatable aspects of my artistic practice.
When I graduated college with my degrees, I found myself pretty stuck because I had this perception of what post-graduate artist life was going to be like for me. I was sure I’d get a full time graphic designer job and paint on the side, but the interviewing process wasn’t going how I expected and the job openings were limited in Milwaukee. I found myself continuing my part time job at the Milwaukee art museum, and attempted to work my way up the ladder but to no avail. I was starting to feel pretty down on myself professionally and artistically because I wasn’t certain I could find a job that I’d be in love with or that I’d have to sacrifice my dreams to make ends meet.
I took up freelance graphic design work where I could, and worked on smaller commissioned works but I was really just looking for a realization – for something to ‘click’ for me within my practice. With this goal kind of sitting in the back of my mind, I went to this event in 2018 that my partner had mentioned to me once in passing. It was called CAKE, shorthand for Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, and while I was there I finally received that eye opening moment where the puzzle pieces kind of fit together. Here there were creatives working in a smaller narrative storytelling format, blending graphic design with the finesse of contemporary painting and illustration into accessible works of art in a very personal way. I realized there was a tangible way to express what I wanted to in a way where I could have conversations about very real things that mattered to me and my art practice. I continued to attend events like CAKE; other zine events, artist book shows and conventions and made up my mind that this was a route that I was going to explore. It felt natural to me, especially given my pre-existing love of manga and graphic novels.
Now in the last two years I have been able to attend many events where I’ve sold or shared my work with others – local comic events like Milk (Milwaukee Indie Comic Fest), or Midwest Perzine Fest in Chicago. I recently hit a major professional goal of vending my comics, zines, and illustrative works at Small Press Expo, one of the most influential independent comic events in the US where so many of my comic artist heroes were present as my peers. I’m continuing my work making zines and comics that address my passions- addressing mental health issues, healing trauma, and finding silver linings in every day life. My partner and I continue to sell at various events and I am ensuring that I keep working on my larger scale painting works as well. I’m incredibly proud that I’ve been able to use art like alchemy, transforming it into stories that others relate to and that validates other’s human experiences, healing, and even pain.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
In college, it’s very much programmed into you that to be a successful artist, you have to be participating in the “art world” – specifically you have to be showing in galleries in big cities like New York City, and your artwork needs to be purchased by the upper class, added to private collections around the world. This is a genuinely outdated and elitist concept, and it’s still something that I need to remind myself to not feed into when I create my own work. Growing up, I viewed art inside of art museums almost entirely – and so my understanding of what it meant to be an artist was that you needed to get your work in museums. In order to get your work in museums, you need to become a prominent face in the gallery world, gaining rapport and popularity until your artwork is deemed worthy of a museum wall. At least, that’s how I understood it, and that perception was fed into by many art professors that I had in college. The problem with that is, in order to get an opportunity – someone has to hold the door open for you and welcome you into a gallery space. Networking is essential, but it can be really hard to secure a show by just introducing yourself to folks in galleries- hoping you might meet the right person with connections and that they might like your work enough to usher you into a clean white space to put your work up into for folks to view.
In about 2017, my partner and I flew out to New York City for a weekend away to explore, view art, and eat good food. For years I had this ideal dream that I would work my way up in the “art world” and that maybe, someday, I would have my own solo show in New York City like the ”real artists” did. Ultimately on this trip, I was immensely underwhelmed by the reality of the city and its art spaces. I realized that my dreams were no longer applicable – the magic view I had of myself as an artist in this city, sharing my work in a solo show crumbled in all honesty. I came back home, and I unpacked what that meant for me realistically. It wasn’t until I went to CAKE, as mentioned earlier, that things started shifting back into perspective and I had a new, tangible and exciting goal. I still need to remind myself that there are so many ways to be an artist, and that almost none of them are wrong. For now, my focus has been on expressing what I want to explore through whichever medium feels best. Sometimes I want to be vulnerable and make an abstract self portrait, other times my work takes on a narrative structure and turns into a more widely accessible zine- sometimes I just want to paint fun eyes on mother of pearl beads. It’s become essential for me to be playful and fun with what I am making, to be all in whether it’s something I can finish in an hour or something that takes weeks. I find this way of creating and sharing my work as an artist to be infinitely more genuine and authentically me.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
There are a few things that come to mind with this question so I’ll break down what means the world to me currently. Firstly, connecting with folks who relate to my work on a deeply personal level has been unmeasurably rewarding for me. A lot of my work requires vulnerability – addressing my own very real experiences with trauma, anxiety, mental health issues and human experiences. A lot of folks can relate to these qualities, and I have lost track of the many encounters I’ve had with folks who have viewed my art and felt kinship with me as a result. There are fewer more valuable experiences to me professionally than when someone picks up my Kintsugi zine for example; a zine about the Japanese process of Kintsugi and its relation to the human experiences of loss and healing, for someone that they feel really needs a ‘pick me up’. Or when someone recognizes me from a previous event because of our conversation before and ends up buying my newer works because they still relate to what I’m trying to get across and now find self-validation from my artwork. Healing and transparency are key elements that my work conveys, and any time that I am able to express something vulnerable and be met with connection and support from others, that is a truly rewarding experience.
Additionally, I’m getting to the point in my artistic career where folks overseas and throughout the country are becoming familiar with my work. I’ve sent copies of my Kintsugi and Good Omens zine to folks in Germany recently, and other zines to folks who saw me at SPX in Maryland, didn’t forget about my work and purchased from me later. Several years ago I had reached a real low point, mentally and professionally, so to feel so supported by both folks in my hometown and now worldwide – feels like such a huge improvement for me professionally. I’m only becoming more and more artistically motivated and driven as a result – and I have so many things planned for the future in terms of new artwork, and new connections to make.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://biancabrandolino.com/
- Instagram: @bianca.brandolino
- Twitter: @BiancaBrandoli4