We were lucky to catch up with Pippa Browne recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Pippa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

My final year series at university was one of my most meaningful projects; it marked a moment of personal maturity where my art moved from being a collection of pieces searching to please others to a reflection of my inner dialogue conversing with my critical observations around the world and life.

The series was entitled ‘A comment on 20th Century architecture’. It was less about the state of architecture and more about the invasive stamp of construction (under the guise of ‘development’) that I had seen happening around my neighborhood where buildings were going up with little or no regard for the the landscape and habitats.

Having grown up in the repressed society of Zimbabwe during its civil war of the 70’s I had been coached in the habit of not speaking my mind and not asking too many questions. Finding my voice through my art at the end of my senior year felt as if I had at last found a worm hole through a glass ceiling into a world that would no longer be silenced.

Pippa, 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?

Having graduated from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in the mid 80’s, I returned to Zimbabwe and taught art but did not, at that time, contemplate fully earning my living through my painting. However, I used the teaching platform as a place to create believing that if I was engaged in ‘my work’ along side my students it would give them a sense of what it was to be a practicing artist and a chance to observe skills that may be helpful to them in the future.

Although I continued to create pieces that reflected that newly discovered honesty of my final year at college, I soon realised that there was money to be earned by doing what I termed ‘my commercial work. This was art done for the advertising industry and then in mid 90’s I was invited to illustrate some childrens books for a company in the UK. The money I earned through this ‘commercial work’ far outstripped anything I ever got when i sold one of my ‘real’ pieces and this financial draw became a lure.

Regardless of how busy I was meeting dead-lines I had this deep need to paint ‘what I wanted’ to paint and so wherever I was in the world (from 1988-1997 I traveled widely and split my time between Zimbabwe and the UK) I would create, for myself, in acrylic, on large pieces of paper that were easy to roll up and transport or leave up in the attics of family and friends.

When home with family in December 2020 I met an American in the Chimanimani mountains on the boarders of Mocambique. Because of the political upheavals of the 2000’s our only option to be together was for me to move to the US where I have continued to create and sell art. Over time my art has discarded any separation of style as even though there seemed to be a dissonance between my ‘real’ and ‘commercial’ art work a common theme ran through it all; I have always been inspired to work with energetic flow and juxtaposition of colors to create energy in the form of visual vibrations. I have no doubt that growing up in Africa inspired this; a continent where, even if colors and communities are muted by politics, drought and hardship there is always something that stirs with a shiver of uniqueness and resilience.

The resilience that I have witnessed in so many back -home is inspirational and has been a touch stone for me if ever I wondered at the pointlessness of my creative endeavours. Making art to communicate and celebrate originality is now, for me, not an end game it is a way of surviving; its a way of life.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

• Making structures in society that allow creative endeavours to be easily accessible to all and so eradicate the intimidating aura that often surround art. -Incentivise the purchase of original art by waving tax on it.
• Recognising that money follows art and so offering artists financial incentives to move into areas that are struggling to hold onto business.
• Encourage businesses to purchase original art that can be viewed and, via a lottery system, be owned by the workers

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

To create art that enables the viewer to feel differently about life and to recognise an element of their ‘true nature’ when reflecting on . This can be achieved via individual smaller pieces or via large pubic commissioned art works.

Contact Info:

• Website: artbypippabrowne.com