We were lucky to catch up with Brianna Rigdon recently and have shared our conversation below.
Brianna , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
This is probably my most interesting factoid about being an artist; I wouldn’t be one if I didn’t follow Jesus.
I grew up drawing and creating and being the art kid. It was fun and it made me unique amongst my peers, opened up the door to learning how to do some really cool things like flint mapping and sculpture and sewing. My ability to draw and create grew up along side my faith, my parents encouraged me deeply in both. I really enjoy making things, the tactile feeling of laying ink on paper or clay into form always brings a certain sense of fulfillment, like I was doing what I was made to do. Unfortunately, fulfillment doesn’t pay the rent.
I started my degree in Digital design at Grand Canyon university, attempting to mesh together the need for a job and the desire to create. (It was a really good program, all of the computer skills I have are directly from that course and none of the other colleges.) It was my first semester, I was in Pheonix alone, it was 100 degrees or higher every day until late October, and I was struggling with depression. All of this together was enough to create a gloomy outlook on life and the future on its own, but in combination with a dire sense of pragmatism was enough to make me question whether or not art was what I should have been pursuing. I was sitting on the 2nd floor deck of the coffee shop, working on an Art 1 perspective assignment and getting increasingly frustrated the more and more I thought about what being an artist meant. The stories of starving artists are unavoidable, followed closely by the tales of ‘artist’ being stupid to pursue what they do, sacrificing and suffering for something that no one will see. The worst part being, that most undiscovered artists aren’t Van Gogh. They aren’t secretly under appreciated geniuses doing work before their time, they just genuinely have basic art that doesn’t have much of an audience beyond friends and family. With those thoughts or similar ones in my head and a growing fear of providing for myself, I shut my sketchbook.
“This is stupid,” I thought to myself, shoving my sketchbook back into my bag. “I should be a nurse. I should just go be a nurse. The academic counselor’s office still has 15 minutes, I’m going to go talk to them.” And so I cleaned up my spot, threw away my plastic coffee cup, and went on a sunset trek to the counselors office, the sun at my back and speeding my efforts.
I made it maybe 5 steps into that journey. I suddenly felt a very strong voice in my heart say “This is not what I made you for. Turn around, go home, and draw something.”
And I did. I don’t remember what I drew, I just know that I did a heelspin away from the counselor’s office, went back to my dorm, and drew something. Remembering what my art looked like in 2017 it probably wasn’t great but what matters more is that I obeyed that still-small voice and continued to pursue a degree in art, regardless of the pragmatism still nagging along the way. After that I never doubted art was the degree that I was supposed to get, though that didn’t mean it eliminated the hardships or annoyances that came with said degree, and there were definitely more challenges after I finished at UNM.
I thought “Okay well, I’ve got the degree, now I can go join the real world and be independent with insurance.”
Nope, wrong. 200+ applications in with 3 interviews and no job later, there was a real stress between me and God. I didn’t get it. I still don’t get it. Why call me to this pursuit if it’s not going to provide for me? The best answer I have for that right now is that it’s because the career won’t provide for me, God will provide for me. I know that’s a cheesy, old hat answer, but as I go on at the beginning of this journey I find more and more that it’s true. I’ve never had to ask my parents to pay for my art supplies, or for opportunities to use my abilities. Or even insurance, through my church I know someone who specializes in find insurance, so once I turn 26 I’ll be covered!
I know it’s not so popular now in America to be Christian or even religious in artistic spaces, . but I wouldn’t be here, making art if I wasn’t. This is what God called me to do, it’s what he made me to be, and part of the journey are the hard, rocky hills of doubt that are hard to get over.
Brianna , 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?
Right now my main focuses are Ceramics, and comics.
The ceramics are how I make the most money right now, doing custom dishes. Be that plates, bowls, or mugs, these are the things that people usually like since there’s a very easy, pragmatic use for a bowl or a mug. I can do any design you have in mind! The thing that set me apart most I believe is an emphasis on drawings or sculptural elements within the ceramics, most of my pieces feature a drawing or have a unique sculpture either in or on the piece. It’s hard to say I have a specialty, sculpted, drawn or carved, I can do it all for the most part. I have done ceramic sculptures of people’s characters too which I haven’t seen anyone else do in ceramic. I love these sorts of commisions and I would love to do more. The sculpture I am most proud of is one I actually did for myself, It’s a red wolf that sits on my shelf and helps hold up my books. He’s really dificult to get a good picture of, which in a way makes me even prouder because it means that he translates best as he is, in the 3D form.
Something very specific that the sculpture of characters helps with is giving drawing angles for artists. It’s like those head mock ups or posable dolls, but made specifically for your character with all their unique deisign traits. It really helps with characters with complicated designs that are odd to draw and specific angles, I have a few characters that I’ve done this for myself with.
The comics are more of a pipe dream, I’ve always loved telling stories and engaging with them. I’ve had a lot of half-hearted attempts to start a webcomic, and a lot of unfinished stories here and there, but I think I’m finally on the right track to complete a story.
The story I’m working on now is called “Seething Remain”; it’s a sci-fi/fantasy hyrbid inspired by Transformers and The Shining. It centers around a soldier who woke up in the med-bay of a ship owned by a rogue team of specialized warriors, technicians, and killers. Upon awakening, the soldier finds he has no memory of who he is or his past life, only the word “Seething”. The team uses this as his name, and under the leadership of the mysterious and unnerving Fuega-9, he helps her and the others in their quest to suppress a new threat to the tentative peace of the solar system, a threat that can only be described as magic of arcane origin. Magic that the modern populace has no method of dealing with if it spun out of control.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Shopping less but shopping small when possible I think is the best way! American society specifically suffers from over consumtion and disposable mercantile. Instead of impulse buying the cheaply made 5$ skirt, wait and save up 45$ to buy the hand stitched skirt from a local artist. Yes it’s more expensive, but it will last much much longer than the cheap skirt and despite the current trends, one doesn’t have to get new clothes every two days. This can extend to ceramics too, instead of the cheap novelty mugs that come out every year for holidays, commission an artist to make your ideal mugs that can be reused every year.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, it’s that quiet sense of fufilment that I’m doing what I was made to do. It’s like a quiet little peace that settles over all the noise of day to day life. A close second is the feeling of accomplishment seeing a finished piece sitting happily on a shelf or hanging on a wall.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @scifi_centaur_arts
- Linkedin: Brianna Rigdon
- Other: Tumblr: scifi-centaur-arts
