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

Brad, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I have started a large scale project that will require two years to complete. The project will consist of postcard sized landscape paintings from every state highway in Texas (246 in total). This will showcase the immensity and diversity of Texas. Texas has twelve eco-regions and each distinct eco-region will be represented over each of the four seasons. In a time where the fastest route is a default, I’m asking the viewers of this project to see the land. I am promoting the path less traveled. I want people to reconnect with the land and recognize the beauty that comes with its raw and honest grandeur.

Brad, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I consider this period in my career to be transitional. I am moving away from individual pieces and towards bodies of work that represent entire concepts of thought. My imagery has long been pastoral. I will continue to work with the life around me but I will move towards organizing these images into cohesive and distinct sets of work. I have spent years mastering a level of realism that fits my aesthetic and now hope to use that visual vocabulary to speak on issues and ideas that call to me.

I am not interested in markets. I am an American painter working in realism for the purposes of forming connections between shared experiences. For me, art is not for decorating my walls but for understanding my world. The sales and collection of my work is an almost unintentional side effect of pursing my aesthetic to an increasingly higher set of standards.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Art is a record of artists decisions and use of time. The true goal of my work is to heighten my experience of living, to record judgements and decisions of my aesthetic, and to process the world around me. In the midst of all that, I am also interested in accomplishing some task, mastering a skillset and gaining recognition from my peers.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of art is the winning silent arguments with yourself, hours spent alone trying to solve problems no one cares about and completing something amid pool of self-doubt.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bradsettlesart.com