We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeanie Whatley . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeanie below.

Jeanie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Teaching myself to use silicone in paint was an experience lol

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Not unlike the necessity of adapting to change or otherwise perish, artistic creation is essential to my survival. The vital freedom to tear through reality and create a world of my own. A world of open expression, without self judgement or critic. A safe place to play and connect. I share that world here.

I can become quite restless creatively. I like to find new and exciting ways to challenge myself in attempting to manifest an idea. The outcome of the piece, whether aesthetically pleasing or not, is always a success as growth occurs with each project. Creating opportunities to focus on self care, lessons learned through experimenting with new techniques and materials, a voice when there is none, or time to simply have fun.

Upcycling jewelry is one of my favorite things to do. I really enjoy creating fun and interesting pieces from discarded accessories gathered from various sources. I love the challenge of building something with limited resources. The discarded pieces are all broken down to be rematched and reconstructed into something truly unique. The process can be time consuming, however, I enjoy every minute of it.

Painting is a more personal and therapeutic channel of self expression. In painting, I’m able to reach the soul. Be it mine or the soul of another. Abstract, my favorite, can be very personally revealing to an onlooker. I find it fascinating that something specific to each person is evoked when viewing an abstract piece. A shape, a memory, a feeling, or an experience. And with that evocation, something personal is revealed based on what the onlooker saw or felt from viewing the painting. Abstract is its own psychosocial experiment. Additionally, each orientation tells a completely different story with a completely differrent vibe.

Its very fun. I find painting to be a wonderful escape and a soothing form of self care. It allows me the freedom to be as mentally present or as distant as I need to be in order to create some internal peace. It’s not for everyone, its for me. But if another soul beyond my own is reached through the work, one can’t ask for much more than that.

I love learning. I learn and grow with every piece and project I do. Trial and error. It’s wonderful. I love expanding my range of ideas and possibilities. Learning through mistakes and successes. Fine tuning current skills and learning brand new ones. I love to challenge myself to see what I can pull off. I enjoy the obstacles and the creativity it will take to overcome them.

Art is what I do and who I am.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As an alphabet soup of mental illnesses, Art has definitely played a pivotal role in my survival. It has helped channel the internal chaos productively and creatively. Without my art, the chaos takes over and darker outcomes have a higher probability. One abstract pour piece I created was initiated by spelling out the word HELP in paint. I then continued with the process. It’s one of my favorites.
It’s a beautiful outlet.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Growth. Learning. I want to learn more. Everyday. Dig deeper personally and have it reflect in my work. I want to improve upon and learn new techniques. I want to open as many internal doors as possible to see what I’m capable of creating. I want to see what I can do. I want my work to be intriguing and impactful. Beautiful and complex. I want to always be growing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @buttonandbrass
• Facebook: facebook.com/buttonandbrass

Image Credits
Jeanie Whatley