We were lucky to catch up with Brian Delozier recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

This is the story of how I became an artist and the story of how I officially became a professional artist and how Brian’s Dots started. Coincidently they both invovle acts of kindness. First, becoming an artist is still crazy to me because as a kid growing up I didn’t make art, I didn’t consider myself artist in the least bit. My time was spent playing sports and riding my bike around time. When I was a teenager I had a life changing injury that completely changed everything in my life. As I got into my early twenties I got to such a low point. I felt so lost, depressed and hopeless. I made a decision one day- i said to myself “i need to change the way I think about my situation. I need to accept what happened to me and accept my life how it is. Nothing is going to change what happened and if i cant find a way to accept this i’ll go on indefinitely feeling this depressed. I started a mission to find something new I could put my energy into and find passion again. I decided to do that I needed to change my environment completely. I ended up going as far away as I could to a place i’ve always wanted to go. I left for hawaii. After getting to hawaii I found that things didn’t just instantly change- like I naivley thought. My sadness came with me. One day I met a guy around my age named Jason, he was qn artist and had such an adventure, free spirit. He was very inspiring to me. Without really knowing me, he took me he invited me along to go explore the island with him. He showed me all his favorite places, introduced me to great people.. we stayed in beautiful places in the jungle, up the mountains. All the while he was making art, all over. I would just sit and watch. One day he started to encourage me to start making art. I was reluctant saying i’m not artistic and an even bigger issue, i had very minimal hand function. But he kept uo encouraging me. Saying just try- there’s something you can do- cmon brian! Even getting a little pushy with it- which i needed. Finally one day i finally picked up a marker. Sat there debating what to do with it. The way i needed to hold the marker just automatically made me feel like i needed to make a dot. So i made 1 dot, then another, than another. I sat there and just kept making dots. After only a few minutes I got deep in the zone. It was like unlocking something deep within me. I absolutely loved it, and needed it. Within those first few minutes i already knew i found something special and knew this was going to be a huge part in my life. Here I am 18 years later and I have never stopped making dots. I’ve made hundreds of pieces of art totally around 50 million dots. I am thankful everyday for discovering this passion and for jason , seeing me in need and deciding to help me and encourage me. It is the greatest gift. And goes to show how big of an impact some kindess and encouragment can go. This story takes place in 2007.

The next part of this story takes place 10 years later in 2017. At this point in time I had found myself in another very difficult time in life. I had been traveling for the past decade. Going from place to place. Living All over the US and the dominican republic for a bit. I had recently gone through a breakup that left me really sad and I didn’t know what to do next. I kept trying to live on the road but i was just to sad. I decided to finally go home. Back to Pennsylvania, back to where my family was. My sister said I could move in with her. I was really nice being around my family again. But going from such a fast pace life to staying in 1 place was a difficult transition also dealing with the sadness of a tough breakup. I just made dots all day everyday and felt a lot of pain come up. It was tough but healing. Dotting became more than art, it became a space for healing. I was very lonley and didnt know anyone in thr area. I ended up befriending this woman who was around 80 years old. Her name is Sandy and over the next few months and years we became best friends. We would meet up every week. Trying different restaurants. She was so helpful in giving life advice, with her age came so much knowledge about life and so much help in navigating my difficulties. I could tell her anything and I was always met with such understanding. I had no money, no job and felt bad that everyone around me was supporting me. I felt worthless at times. It had been about a year since meeting Sandy. Usually she was really encouraging and supportive and positive about my situation but on this one particular day she sat me down and said- “Brian, you are floundering.. you have so much talent and so much to offer this world, but you aren’t doing anything with it. You need to step up and get out there. This was tough to hear but exactly what I needed to hear. It was actually something i had been thinking about already. I had done a few small art shows in the past and kinda new a little about what might work and how to go about seriously doing shows and trying to become a professional artist. I even had a list of things I would need to start this Endeavor, what was holding my back was the – at the time very large sum of money i needed to start this. It added up to about $5,000. I needed a printer, canvas , a booth, walls to display. Etc. There was no way i could think of to get 5,000 so it was was just a dream. After sandys speech about how i needed to do something I said to Sandy, i hear you and agree. I even have a plan. She said- then whats stopping you? I said money. I went and showed her my list and she thought it was wild i had this whole list. She asked how much I needed. I said $5,000. Her eyes lit up. Sandy didnt have much money but it turns out a few days before she traded in a bunch of old jewlery and got about $5,000. She said I will let you borrow the money you need to start this. We wrote up a contract right there on a napkin. That I promised to pay her back within a year. And right there that day in thr restaurant it all started. I instantly started ordering what I needed and signed up for my first show all in that hour. It started and I never looked back. Shows started and were going way better than expected. I was motivated to pay my friend back and had her paid back within 3 months. We celebrated! Its 2024 now and things have only kept getting bigger. I have 4 large scale printer, a whole studio, and employee. Doing some of the biggest shows in thr country. I started a clothing line. It still feels like just the begining. My dreams are huge with all of this. Very similarly with how I discovered art. I found my profession through the kindness of a stranger. Trusting me by giving me $5,000. These 2 acts of kindess completely changed my life. I am soo grateful and look forward to the day i can help others like this. Hopefully my story of perseverance and art can inspire and really bring full circle what these 2 peoples kindness help bring to life.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

There is a story that comes to mind that I’ve never really had a chance to share. This was in 2022. I was doing a show in union Square NYC. It was the morning of the show opening and both my helpers couldn’t make it that day. I was panicked already cause i still needed to get so much stuff to my booth. To complicate things the close parking garage was full so i had to park a few blocks away. I haven’t mentiound that I am a quadriplegic so i have minimal function in all 4 extremities. I can walk slowly with the use of crutches. So i parked a few blocks away and started tying everything i needed for the show to my backpack. I had a table and chair tied to it. Art supplies loaded in there. I kept making trips back and fourth. Anxiety of the charts, just wanti ng to collapse and cry but continuing to make these trips hauling stuff on my back. I looked like a crazy person, no one did ask to help b Which I’m ok with cause proving to myself i could do what i needed to do with that high stress and that difficult physical level is something i’m so proud of. I pull up that memory if things get tough. I made it through that!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to inspire people to not give up. Find the beauty in the struggle. Also to help people find healing through art.

Contact Info:

• Website: Briansdots.com
• Instagram: @brians_dots
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/BsZ0a1WwrvM