We were lucky to catch up with Brandy Langie recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brandy, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I don’t remember planning a future as a child. I think I briefly wanted to be an archeologist after seeing dinosaur bones at my first visit to the natural history museum and the La Brea tar pits. I remember drawing as a child and loving to do crafts, but, I never really thought about it as a future profession. Then I remember one year being allowed to tag along for “take your kid to work day” with a friend who’s aunt worked for Hanna-Barbera. For the first time in my life, I got to see art as a profession. I saw character design and old school cell animation. I heard trade “secrets” about reused run cycles. It was fascinating to see cartoons that I’ve actually seen in action from beginning to end. I knew from then on that I had to be an animator. This was MY calling.
Later in life I went to art school for animation. Maybe I didn’t make the right connections, or maybe I didn’t put myself out there enough, but I never became an animator. Working whatever job I applied for and still creating in my spare time, I learned along the way, that maybe it wasn’t about making cartoons, but more about creating. The art was inside of me and very much a part of who I was. To ignore it would be a disservice. It didn’t HAVE to be animation, I just needed to create.

Brandy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve always been an artist. I know every artist says that, but truly, I have always taken comfort in the creative process. To this day I still own one of my first sets of crayons. It’s a prized possession. After “failing” as an animator, I fell into the role of a photo retoucher at a well known toy company. I was/am very good with photoshop and find comfort in the tedious task of retouching photos but it wasn’t creatively fulfilling. I needed an outlet. I have always kept a sketchbook and would periodically take on small projects like designing and sewing a whole halloween costume for my nephew. I would make things and give them away to friends and family. I never took myself serious as an artist. My taste is colorful and a bit odd. I made things that I myself wanted to see and didn’t really care what others thought about it. I couldn’t imagine anyone else seeing my art and finding it beautiful. I didn’t nurture my creativity and down played it’s importance in my life. It wasn’t until I moved from Compton, CA to Detroit, MI and had my first real experience with seasonal depression exasperated by my home sickness that I realized how important art was to my well being. I started experimenting with paint. I was never formally trained to paint, so it was always intimidating, but I tried it anyway. My ideas got more colorful and more complicated, but I noticed I started to feel better inside. I painted lots of eyeballs and eyeball flowers, which is what most people know me for, but also lots of twisted and contorted faces which i have come to recognize as the emotions i feel and may or may not deal with. I told myself, “Let’s just put a few of these creative babies out there and see what happens.” And I did. I answered open calls and had my first show in 2022 at The Congregation, a coffee house in Detroit. From then on, i’ve stopped ignoring the need to create. My art though, is very much my own. What i feel sets me aside from other artist is, I don’t care about the sell or what everyone else wants to see. I create what I want to see. I say what I want to say. I don’t care if all of this art ends up stacked in my attic as long as I created it and it is no longer stuck inside me. Art has and will always be, “free” therapy.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I love my art. That sounds so self absorbed, I’m sure. I create the art I wish I saw as young black woman. I have always been “different”. I like metal and horror films, eyeballs are a common theme in my art, and i can hold a conversation about cannibalism. I would love to be able to start the redefining of black art. I grew up with black art being a certain thing and today the definition has not changed much. I’m not interested in depicting our heroes and historical figures. I don’t want to show “the struggle”. I appreciate the art of those who do, but that’s not me. Black people are so multifaceted. Why should there be a single definition of what black art is? I do not paint in shades of brown, but my faces clearly have black features. People of color IN color. It’s so sad, and quite insulting, when someone even hints at my art not being “black enough”. I am black, therefore my art is “black art”.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I always thought art was what I saw in the museums. When I got older, I realized EVERYTHING is art. Art is all around us. From simple emojis to the billboards all around us. I feel like I had to unlearn everything I learned in art school. Yes, I still use everything I’ve learned since I am now teaching art to my students, but I feel like art school made me less creative. I was more willing to try new things and experiment before I learned all the rules. But, even in that feeling, I have also learned, sometimes you have to learn the rules to better break them. I like to push the boundaries of proportion and twist and contort things in my art. I would have no idea how to break those rules if I hadn’t learned them first.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eye.be.art/