We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brea’ Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brea’ thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My senior thesis in high school was my most meaningful body of work. It centered around the grief of my father, who died when I was 10 from complications with diabetes. It was the most self fulfilling body of work that consisted mainly of photography but also included things like paintings, stop motion photography, relief work, as well as a performance piece. I wanted to explore my grief in a way that allowed me to work through my feelings surrounding grief that I wasn’t able to process as a young child. It meant so much to me because it was such a therapeutic process and integral in me understanding how I had been feeling all this time. Also, the impact it had on other people was absolutely incredible. At my senior show, I exhibited this body of work and performed the performance piece. I heard so many stories afterwards about how that piece hit home and moved the audience. It was a tremendously powerful, raw moment that I was able to share with so many people, including my own family. They attended my senior show as well and since I had been so reserved as a child when asked about my grief, because I simply didn’t know how I felt, this was the first time in about 8 years, at that point, where they could see and feel what I was feeling.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I was in fifth grade, my dad died. When I returned to school after hearing this news, it was pajama day and my favorite teacher to this day, Ms. Hendricks, was outside the classroom that morning to greet us at the door, like usual, but in a onesie, lol. As I approached her, I noticed that she was seemingly specifically waiting for my arrival with tears welling in her eyes. As I approached her, she reached out to hug me and I accepted. I so vividly remember this hug. It was firm, warm, and sorrowful as if the feeling of her grief transferred to me in that hug. She asked me how I was, handed me a gift, and reassured me she was always there. The gift was a journal and a pack of colored pencils with multiple colors mixed into one pencil. I thanked her and unbeknownst to her, she provided me the perfect outlet at the perfect time, a way to express the emotions I could not yet process. Since then, I’ve used art as a means to give a voice to the inside me who sometimes feels trapped, unheard, and not yet digestible for me or anyone else in a way that I can express visually. My practice is vast and unbounded but the string that ties my work together is that it is authentically me. There’s no doubt that my work is mine, whether I’m wearing my fine arts/narrative-based hat today or I’m wearing my editorial photography hat tomorrow. I may even learn how to wood burn next week, but no doubt it’s going to scream “Brea’ did this”. I think a lot of my friends and close loved ones know my exact character traits, including the traits of my work, to a tee. If I had to guess, I’d say the words that would probably come up are “intentional”, “detailed”, “thoughtful”, “personal”, “complex”,… I fear this is starting to sound like I’m full of myself. No, but if I am being honest, I am very insecure about my work at times, just as I think any artist experiences quite often. What helps and matters most to me is sharing my insecurities like, “I am so interested in so many media and themes and archetypes that my work is not cohesive” and then just hanging my work up, which seems “all over the place” to me, and having the audience walk by and say “Oh, that’s Brea’s work, right?”. And I think that’s what makes a successful artist, having art that’s so authentically yours that it doesn’t matter what you do.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew what a resource I was to myself. I always advocate heavily for self advocacy because nobody got you how you got you! And the worst someone can say is no and to be successful, we can’t just accept our fear of “no”. That possibility of “no” must drive us. But I can’t stress enough how many doors will open up if you begin to advocate for yourself. I have social anxiety so it’s really hard but even emailing can go a long way. I’m still pretty early in my creative career and definitely still practicing this every single day but it’s the best advice I could give.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

It’s never as easy as it looks and yes it does cost that much! I am always inclined to film or document my process in some way because I think non-creatives often overlook the amount of work it takes to create. It is mentally and physically taxing. I like to relate it to doing math sometimes. Like figuring out a photo shoot or working out personal feelings that are very much intertwined with the work that i’m making is difficult. Or lugging 3 giant studio lights, 2 cameras, a bunch of tripods, as well as the smaller things like props and things. Canvases, paint box full of oil paints, brushes, rags, water cups, are all very strenuous things to lug around. Then after lugging that around and setting up, then comes the mental work. Which is like any other work but I think since creatives are seen with more talent than skill and people also think the creative process is freeing and mindless, which it can be sometimes, they don’t really understand how much mental work it is to get the idea out of your brain and into the world. Then finally, you made the piece and the final alteration, and it’s time to share it. It’s such a scary and vulnerable experience to put your work in the world. It’s a piece of you and non-creatives usually don’t realize what a gift it truly is to see the art they do.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.bybreawilliams.com/
• Instagram:by.breawilliams