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

Alright, Dane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I think content is a better word for how I feel to be an artist. There are ups and downs with it but the creative process is what I live for the most, creating something from nothing.

I’ve always wanted to do something creative as a kid whether it was rhyming, writing scripts, or trying to create comics.

As I got older and realized I was unhappy with working a regular job I decided to reconnect to that creative side to find a way out. That lead me on a journey that I couldn’t imagine I would be on and I don’t see that happening if I stayed in the same land iv was in. At this point I feel like my regular job is getting in the way of my art.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Even though I was already studying at Art school since 2009, and started doing some artshows in 2017, I don’t think I really started to see things come together after 2020.

After the lock down from the pandemic ended, I jumped on to every artshow I could find where I started to get familiar with Atlanta’s creative community.

I hooked up with a few other artists and started to throw shows ourselves which lead to creating Art Crew ATL which got us more ingrained into that community.

All the time I started to explore all types of creativity beyond what I leaned in school, ranging from painting to woodburning.

Whatever the medium I use, one of the biggest takeaways I want stress in my work is identity, specifically black identity. Stories are how we define that identity and I use my art to define what has affected most of us collectively.

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.

One of the things that I would definitely stress is that creating doesn’t just happen. I think that a lot of people feel that it’s something that magically happens but there’s a process to it.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t come more naturally to some people, but there’s a lot of things involved.. It takes hours of learning, problem solving, and practice.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I would say there are 3 for me.

1. The initial reward of setting an idea come into fruition.

2. The response I get when someone truly connects to a piece of artwork (the best feeling is when I actually hear people say the felt like crying after looking at an artwork…..happy tears of course).

3. When a collector/ buyer connects with the work so much they buy it to put in their home.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mrandmrsbrownstore.weebly.com/
• Instagram: @danebrown1st_artist

Image Credits
@noir_realm @focusncolor