We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brittany Noriega a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brittany , appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I have known I would (and have been stubbornly determined to) be a creative professional since I was very young. During my high school and college years I excelled in all things art related. The arts were the only thing that made absolute sense to me.. I was told repeatedly by teachers, family, and professionals that a career in the arts was either a bad choice or a very difficult one. That being an artist wasn’t a real job. Because of this “advice”, I became determined to do just that.

I studied studio art in college, trudged through a lengthy and difficult tattoo apprenticeship, became a tattooer and eventually owned a tattoo shop in Rapid City, SD. This was my first artistic career pursuit.

Brittany , 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?

After moving to Kansas City in 2015, I decided to pursue a fine arts career. Kansas City is known for being an incredible art-forward city and there are so many opportunities here for artists that I decided to go for it. I really dove in, joining two exceptional local arts organizations, and going to as many events and gallery shows as possible. I also met my now husband in 2015, and we started our family the very next year.

My artwork has always been tied to the human experience and the things that we go through. I am fascinated with humans, the decisions we make, and the emotions that surround those decisions. I have been creating around these topics in various ways since 2018, moving primarily into drawing around 2020. I dug in even further during the pandemic and in 2021 I finished a series of drawings that focused on trauma and growth through my own personal experience. I received an Inspiration grant in 2021 from ArtsKC, went back to school, and started a small arts zine.
In 2022 I had four solo exhibitions, was awarded a Centerpiece for Social Justice residency through the InterUrban Arthouse and received a Rocket grant for my zine from The Charlotte Street Foundation.

In my life and early in my creative journey I dealt with a lot of trauma and personal struggles. Art has not only helped me deal with these struggles and understand them, but it has helped me move away from the past and create a life that I love with my family. I am immensely proud of my journey and now look forward to a beautiful future.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Since my creative journey took off here in Kansas City my goal has always been bringing community together. I have been amazed at the amount of support and opportunity available here to artists. It’s a brand new thing to me and I wanted to be part of it. I wholeheartedly believe that success is not built individually but together. When communities take care of each other, support each others passions and pursuits, and lift everyone up, we all succeed together. I am very fortunate these days to be able to live and create how I want to, I want to use that time helping and lifting others up so they can do the same.

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

This is a lesson I am still unlearning. For the past few years I felt like I had to prove something in order to be worthy, to live, to show my work. I had this grand idea that success was only measured one way, there was one path, and that I had to work nonstop in order to be “good” at what I do. I’m very proud of the things that I have achieved, and I do believe that hard work is key to building your skills and meeting goals, but I now understand that there is an important balance and there are unlimited ways to define success. Taking care of yourself is equally important, if not more important, than over-working yourself in order to prove something.

I think that this idea came from struggling so much in the past and working so hard to overcome and start over. I have been in survival mode and I took that outlook straight into my creative world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bmnoriega.art
• Instagram: @bmnoriega