Brittany Fanning
Born in Florida among alligators and mosquitos, Brittany Fanning eventually escaped to Dahlonega, Georgia, a small Hallmark-style town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She studied painting at the University of North Georgia where she was heavily influenced by Appalachian artists, their depictions of nature and painterly figurative works. After graduating, she lived in South Korea for 7 years where she continued working as an artist, connecting with the culture and unique neighborhoods of Seoul and surrounding cities. In April of 2022, she moved to Los Angeles where she currently lives and works.
Could you tell us more about your background and how you began creating art?
I always drew as a child. I would often get in trouble for sketching during class and ignoring teachers. Even now, I absolutely love getting lost in my own little world, and it’s a great way to avoid being social. My favorite thing is telling people I can’t come to things because I have to work- and work is coloring. I studied painting in Dahlonega, Georgia, set in the foothills of Appalachia and full of self-taught, hillbilly artists. The movement, painterly-ness, and liberation with color these artists expressed greatly influenced my painting style.
What does your art aim to say to its viewers?
My current collection of work revolves around gardens. These are safe spaces for the viewer to hop in and get lost like Mary Poppins and those strange children did in Bert’s sidewalk chalk drawings.
As a very indecisive person, I fight between preferring the city and the countryside; How Jane Austen of me. The city offers restaurants, culture, and everything to do, while the countryside has clean air and intimacy with nature. The best compromise I can come up with is the garden: a man-made, naturalistic, manicured space all to yourself. You have the illusion of being in nature, but it’s safe and often tailored to your liking.
As Americans, we are all consumers of true crime- whether it’s on a podcast, a Netflix documentary, or the news cycle. Crime is so horrendously rampant that it has become our entertainment. This constant exposure to real-life horror leads me to have daily intrusive thoughts about how I would handle some of the situations I’ve learned about. Women are so often the victim, and this perturbs me, so in my daydreams about being attacked, I tend to turn the tables and become the predator myself. My imaginary revenge gets so gratuitous and violent at times that it becomes comical. These thoughts end in my hypothetical garden, where I bury the body of the culprit, relax with my pet wild animal and enjoy a snack. The viewer is encouraged to create their own narrative around the gardens and their pre-dug graves and occasional alligators or mountain lions. Is the relationship with this space one of terror, peace, or both?
Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your daily routine when working?
I wake up around 7am each morning. I have coffee and make lists for the day. Sometimes I’ll rearrange artwork in my studio to decide what to work on-what feels right for the day. I’m always working on several pieces at once. I go to the gym and come back around 10 to start painting. I paint off and on until around 7 or 8pm. During that, I work on a few pieces at once- using the same palette and never wasting paint.
What is the essential element in your art?
This might be a common answer from artists, but color. I love mixing and seeing the way colors interact with each other. I try to balance this out with narrative and humor, but there are a few of my works that are simply for the colors.
In your opinion, what role does the artist have in society?
Like I mentioned before, I can be very indecisive. Sometimes I think artists are very important visionaries that offer new perspectives that change the way society views the world. Sometimes, I think we are useless and not contributing to anything in a truly meaningful way. I suppose that leaves me somewhere in between where I believe some artists give us these significant ways to see their chosen subject matter, completely altering our way of thinking. While some are just coloring like children.
