We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brit Spencer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Brit, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
I grew up in generation where being an artist wasn’t really considered a career path. As a child I was always drawing and writing poetry, playing cello and piano, those were the things that made my soul shine. Although I spent my spare time involved in these creative processes I never once thought that a career as an artist was a viable option. I was taught at an early age that those who were successful in these areas were troubled and lived hard lives in which their talents were not discovered until they were long gone. Maybe this is still the case in my story, as I always had anxiety and depression as long as I can remember. I spent most my adult life trying to find a career path that allowed me to be creative and also have success in this lifetime.
After graduating high school I went to University for a year before dropping out to pursue a path as a hair stylist, I guess this would be the beginning of my creative journey. My reasoning was that I desired artistic expression and doing hair was like “art on the human head”. I found success in this field, but also found my crippling anxiety. Trying to work with people and their unrealistic expectations, their unloading of weight onto their stylist, the secrets I was to keep, it was so much more than my art. The anxiety and depression that came with the job I numbed with alcohol and substance abuse. I was stuck in this cycle for 8 years before I decided to step away from the chair and start a family.
In 2010 I had my first child. I always wanted to be a mother, quite possibly the greatest of all my creations. It was just 6 years later I found myself going through a divorce and trying to recreate myself in the working world. In the years leading up to my divorce I found yoga. I started an instagram back before instagram was so big. I found escape from my anxiety and depression through creating artistic photos and talking about my life journey. I gained quite the following and was somewhat of an “influencer” before “influencers” were a thing. Through yoga I naturally was led to sobriety. This was a path that would be winding and definitely took some wrong turns along the way. I loved the creative process involved with taking these photos “art of the human body”. I took a yoga teacher training course and worked teaching yoga and fitness as well as doing photoshoots and product deals. Once again I found myself getting farther from my own creative process and creating for other people. I was thrown into a world filled with ego and expectation. My sobriety came into question when the anxiety and depression again became too much to bare.
In 2018 I met my soul mate. We knew we were meant to be together forever and we wanted to have a child before my clock timed out. The next year I had my second child, a daughter. This was when I knew continuing my instagram, where I took photos of my body, was not the path for me. I had so much more inside me than my physical. I began to write and paint and play piano again. This was the year I birthed my daughter and my true artistic journey. Painting became my release, the release my anxiety and depression needed all these years. Art, not about anyone else, not on a head or involving photos of my body, but the true art that was deep down inside me all this time. I finally found my way to the place I was being pulled to all these years. This is when my path to sobriety also became less foggy and void of twists and turns. Numbing was the opposite of what I wanted to do.
As I walk through my forth year of really working on finding my artistic voice, I feel grateful for my path. I feel honored to have found the light that was trying to surface all these years. I can definitely wish that I would have started when I was young. I can wonder what would be if my artistic child self were embraced and nurtured, but I wouldn’t have my beautiful children and the life lessons that made me who I am. Perhaps my battles with anxiety and sobriety would have been different, but that wasn’t the path I was meant to walk.
Brit, 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?
My name is Brit. I have had a creative fire burning inside me as long as I can remember. I have also had a darkness that I label as anxiety and depression. Through the continued practice of yoga and meditation along with my artistic expression I am finally making friends with the anxious and depressed depths that exist inside me. I am beginning to understand that those “holes” are actually where my super powers are born. Instead of filling them with poison and quick fixes I embrace them and fill them with contemplation and compassion.
“The tortured mind of an artistic kind” is something I say that resonates so deep. I see other creatives of the world and I see my own tortured journey. Not that all creatives are as crazy as me, but I can’t help but wonder how many people are out there, lost in the sauce, instead of creating. I feel drawn to something bigger than my art. Maybe that’s my true purpose, maybe it’s more than the art, maybe it’s to help others heal through the creative process. I don’t know what path I will travel, but I’m excited for the journey and leaning into the experience.
I am in my 4th year of working towards my art and healing journey business. The face of my offerings have changed over the years. I started with watercolor because I could do it side by side with my daughter. In 2024 I felt drawn to explore alcohol ink. I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom and lack of control that came with the inks. It was exactly the shift I needed at that point.
This year I felt a pull to use acrylic and create more realistic works again. I can’t say this is where I will stay forever, but this is where I am feeling inspired today. I love the hours of time spent building up layers and dancing with light and dark. I feel like it’s so relevant to my life, it’s always been a dance between my bright light and my dark shadows. I enjoy the time spent reflecting and contemplating, free of judgement, just pure acceptance of every stroke.
I am currently 70 hours deep on a 48” x 48” commissioned piece of a kraken. He has been so fun because he is full of vibrant colors. It has been a fun change of pace from my more simplistic color schemes I’ve been learning acrylic with. I have learned the color wheel so many times, first in beauty school, but again with every medium I dive into. Acrylic paint was no different so I started simple with just a couple colors and the wide array of shades I could create using just 2 colors.
I feel I am still in the stage of discovering my own inner artistic voice. I don’t know where I will land, but I’m excited for the journey. I currently do a couple festivals a year and also offer art on my website. I love working in commissions if the fit is right. It’s a beautiful collaboration of vision with expression.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
At the age of 12 I joined my small towns group of children to attend a language arts field day. I was signed up to perform in the poetry category, I loved poetry, word art. Just a day before the big event we had someone drop out of the “impromptu” category. I was asked if I’d be willing to fill this space and take on a new challenge. I moved forward with very little knowledge about what I would be asked to do that day.
The morning of the event I was picked up by a teacher and some peers to make the trek down the mountain. It was a couple hour drive to get to this event. At this time I didn’t understand my anxiety, where it came from, how to make friends with it so we could both exist inside my little head. During the journey I got sick and threw up all over myself, mortified, anxiety leveled up. The rest of the day I would be reminded of this moment by the pungent smell of my breakfast mingling with my stomach acids that now covered my clothes.
The event went on and we were given our prompts to speak from. I ended up with the word “umbrella”. As soon as I was isolated and given the space to be creative, I felt safe. Just me and my creativity, we were solid. I came up with a story about a flying umbrella that was hiding in my closet, pretty wild right?! The funny thing about this day was that when I was creating my act, 3 minutes I believe was our time to prepare, my anxiety was gone, vanished like that flying umbrella.
To my surprise I brought home a first place medal that day. Riddled with anxiety I was shocked! This was the first time I realized I had creative powers. It would be a long and winding road to get to where I am today, but everything led back to this moment, covered in barf, riddled with anxiety, and still abundantly full of creativity.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
The creative journey is a personal one, different for everyone. It’s hard to explain what it is that inspires me to paint something, we are surrounded by so much inspiration. In a world filled with social media and so many things flashing before our eyes, it’s easy to get distracted. I have taken a step back from social media for this reason. I don’t want to paint like someone else, I want to paint from the heart. This process can seem confusing to others. Sometimes the process of painting something I am truly proud of takes a long time. There is so much pressure in this world to paint something amazing, do it quick, and also don’t forget to take video along the way so you can put out a polished clip that shrinks a 100 hour journey into a 30 second reel for instagram. This pressure can be crippling to the creative process, right there with substance abuse. It takes time and deep reflection to get to the places in my heart that feed the creation. It’s not always pretty and doesn’t need to be something everyone loves, that’s ok with me. The tortured mind of a creative kind, it takes time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bspencerfineart.com
- Instagram: @bspencerfineart
- Other: yoga instagram: @b_free_live_peacefully
