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Brandi Milne
197 Plays4 years ago
Brandi Milne is an American painter. Born and raised in Anaheim California in the late 1970's, Milne's surrounding world of classic cartoons, toys, candies, Disneyland and joyous family Holidays fascinated and deeply influenced her young imagination.
Self-taught and emotionally driven, Brandi's work speaks of love, loss, pain and heartbreak underneath a beautiful candy-coated surface. Using elements as language from her child's mind, Brandi creates a unique surreal world that is undeniably hers.
Brandi's work is celebrated and supported in fine art galleries and museums internationally and across the US, and has been featured in both written and online publications such as Hi Fructose & Bizarre Magazine. She published her first book So Good For Little Bunnies in 2008 and her second, Frohlich, in 2014, both with Baby Tattoo Books. Brandi has collaborated with many companies including Hurley, Billabong, Disney, Sugarpill Cosmetics and Acme Film Works for CVS Pharmacy.
Brandi is pleased to present her new exhibition —— October 29, 2022 at the Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.
http://www.brandimilne.com
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing. Creator and host, Ken Vellante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer. This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast and most excited, very excited to have a conversation now with Brandy Milney.
00:00:29
Speaker
who is a lovely artist, vibrant works, very well known and loved. Brandy, welcome to something rather than nothing. Hello, thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited. Yeah, and we're gonna get into your art and into you as a creator and focusing on creators.
Journey to Artistic Identity
00:00:52
Speaker
A cool question I like to ask,
00:00:56
Speaker
So, Brandy, you're born. Are you an artist right when you're born? Yes. Absolutely. 100%. But for me, it took me many, many, many, many, or too far too long to feel I deserved to be called an artist, you know, to have that title within myself. Other people said it to me, but
00:01:25
Speaker
I really struggled with, uh, attaching that title to myself and feeling worthy of it. But, um, 100%, 100%. How long did it take Brandy to, to, to identity? Uh, I'll say, let's see, um, 40 years. Yeah. That's a long time, right?
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't mind long times that life's like that, right? Right. Yeah. It turns out. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm, you know, I mentioned on the podcast a bunch, like I started painting or seeing myself as an artist like three years ago and I'm 48. So long stretches are fine. Yeah. Um, Brandy. Um, so we,
00:02:12
Speaker
Getting into your art, I wrote down some words. I'm looking forward to conversations about surrealism and juxtaposition of fantastic images. I've seen words like candy-coated or the brightness of your work, this playfulness, madness. You grew up in Anaheim.
00:02:40
Speaker
What is this world? Tell us what's going on. In Anaheim or in my paintings? Very different. Well, in your paintings and where they come from. Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah. I love those words. I love madness. Playful. Surreal. I, you know, I feel like, you know, in my life there was a disconnect
00:03:10
Speaker
with just kind of how I felt inside, and then also what my thoughts were about that kind of thing. A great divide, a disconnect. So for me, my world that I created, and I'm creating daily, it's always evolving. But it just kind of came out without
00:03:38
Speaker
me knowing what it was, you know, it kind of unfolded for me. The more, you know, obviously you're painting, you're, you know, sitting there for hours with an intention or without an intention. But for me, I just kind of sat there and listened to, I don't know, something deep inside like that that I could explore and, you know, kind of create a world around, you know,
00:04:07
Speaker
if that makes sense. So my work is very vibrant. It's candy coated like on the outside looking in, but on the inside it's based on emotions and human experience, self-acceptance, love and loss, grief, all that stuff. So it's kind of hard to say where it came from other than that disconnect within myself and willingness to
00:04:38
Speaker
kind of explore and listen and take 40 years to understand maybe, you know, and just be dedicated to it, you know, to myself, I guess, to my expression, you know. Well, yeah, thank you for that. Does that even answer that question? Yeah, it does.
Art as Emotional Expression
00:05:00
Speaker
And, you know, and I think the thing is about your dedication to it as an individual creator is
00:05:05
Speaker
Oh, you know, you put that out and, you know, out here and I'm able to connect to it. And like immediately on the emotional level, I find that it's like, this seems too fun. Like, is this art? Can I play with this? Is this okay? You know, like there's this whole. I love that.
00:05:24
Speaker
Yeah, like there's like a forbidden, like there's a forbidden component to it. I find that, you know, I know the term with, you know, pop surrealism that's used, but there's this like great enjoyment that I know that people who love that style and love that art that they get out of it that I think other people be like, I don't know if I'm supposed to look at that. That's too weird. Right, right, right. Yeah, it kind of looks like a, um,
00:05:50
Speaker
do I have permission to explore this? It is fun and it is fanciful and doesn't make sense. It doesn't always come together and make sense, but it's a wild ride if you allow yourself to
00:06:06
Speaker
go in there, you know? Yeah. I wanted to ask, you know, I started to mention like, you know, some art terms, you think about pop and that has, you know, and surrealism, these types of terms, I wanted to delve into a little bit more of like, say, surrealism and those components, your idea of it, but I wanted to ask you, you know, upfront,
00:06:30
Speaker
What is art? And you talked about your identity and coming to terms with it and then express it. So you're an artist and you're an incredible artist. Thank you. Oh, what is art for you? What is art? Art. I love this question. Art is expression of the human experience.
00:06:58
Speaker
with no line, with no boundaries, with just full abandon, whatever expression you want to take, it comes from you. It comes from somewhere deep inside, even if it doesn't seem that way. It's way deep inside and things that we don't always have access to, like I was saying before. And it's kind of hard to,
00:07:30
Speaker
put margins around that kind of thing, you know, like It is a full expression, you know, it is communication with each other with with other humans that are that are on their own paths, you know, and it's I put into my work a lot of emotion and a lot of deeper thinking and I
00:07:55
Speaker
I feel like I communicate that stuff and people are attracted to it because they are on their own path and they understand within themselves. So in that it's like I'm expressing what I feel and then in turn it's communicating with other people and hopefully landing on a place within each of us that understands and come together and understand the struggle.
00:08:25
Speaker
of life and the pains and the not just happy stuff. Like my work is, you know, it looks happy, you know, it's vibrant, very colorful and playful, but it isn't always happy, you know, some of it's really sad and deeply felt. So art is expression, art is all of us communicating in our own unique ways, you know.
00:08:53
Speaker
I really love your description. I've been over time and doing the podcast and moving towards 100 episodes. Nice. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It's very exciting. It is. Great guest, too. But the things I keep hearing are language, communication, emotions, right?
00:09:18
Speaker
You know i'm so deeply interested in that as somebody as an artist or somebody trying to express themselves feeling hampered or inadequate or not being able to communicate in other ways and having a lot of stuff to communicate and be like. Oh crap i think artists like.
00:09:39
Speaker
can talk in a different way, and connecting to that language is transformative. And I loved your description of it. I'm also an organizer, so it sounded like a little bit contagious, and this person's going to talk about it, and this person's going to talk about it, you know? Yeah, totally.
Impact of the Pandemic on Art
00:09:59
Speaker
I totally agree with that. Art is language. Art is language.
00:10:04
Speaker
And for a lot of us, you know, like you just said about, you know, having a lot to say, but not knowing how to say it, that is, that totally resonates with me. And that's how I found my art is that I just, I didn't know how to say things, you know, in my life, throughout my life, I didn't know how to say, and I kind of hid all that stuff in the art.
00:10:31
Speaker
You know, and and that was my first language, if that makes sense. Oh, yeah. Well, so we just talk about, you know, what art is. I want to ask a follow up question related to what you said about the role of art. And it's a it's a you know, it's a big it's a big question, but
00:10:54
Speaker
Is it to communicate? Is it to disrupt? Is it to process? Is it all those things? What is the role of art? I love that question. I know art is extremely important. And I suppose that art has a different role in everybody's life. Lots of people don't even pay attention to art.
00:11:24
Speaker
They can't feel art, but they need it. You know, they don't know they need it maybe, but, um, the role of art in the world. You know, honestly, I just, I feel like it, it is just that it goes back to that feeling of like, um, communicating that we're not alone, you know, that that we're, we're not alone.
00:11:53
Speaker
we're all connected, you know, and, um, and super important, uh, super important and recent, recent times that the pandemic to, you know, if you don't have the discourse face to face discourse, it might be some other, I don't know, what would you call like tethers thrown out here to the world? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You know, it's funny. Um, I thought when the pandemic hit, I thought, you know, I, I didn't know where art would
00:12:22
Speaker
would go. Galleries were closed and museums and my business, I show in galleries and go to social gatherings. But really, I feel like in my own business, I feel like people reached out more for art during the pandemic and during the isolation. I feel like I felt
00:12:51
Speaker
a huge support, you know, in my own small place on the earth, you know, I, and I really, it really touches me because I know, I understand it, you know, it's a freaking crazy time and, um, scary ass shit going on. People, um, people really reached out for art and, and I've heard that, you know, through other artists, um, you know, in their own businesses. So I,
00:13:20
Speaker
I know how important it is and how that thing, that thing of we're not alone. I'm not alone here, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate your direct comments on that of like, you know, getting through and how to connect. You know, I think it was interesting for me because I started the podcast outside of the pandemic, but the bulk of the
00:13:46
Speaker
bulk of it is in the pandemic and now it comes out of the pandemic. And I can't for one assess all that. Just the experience of being within it, it was a type of thing where it's like,
00:14:06
Speaker
do you want to talk about art now? And there were two responses. Sometimes it felt like, you know, hell's to the no, or absolutely. I don't want to talk about art right now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. You know, so, but, um, people said, hell no.
00:14:23
Speaker
They never, you know, it's always polite, you know, and maybe it's the way I received help knows like if, if, you know, maybe my head if the response was inadequate, I process just be enough.
00:14:38
Speaker
But no, it's been interesting in the personal pandemics and coming out of it. Most of the world isn't coming out of anything. So it's like that type of discussion about what your experience is.
00:14:55
Speaker
I'm very excited. I know Brandi, you know, you'll be having, you know, things will be open up having things in gallery. But before we get, you know, into like maybe some of the physical art and where to find that type of thing, I wanted to go go
Influences on Creative Identity
00:15:11
Speaker
back a bit.
00:15:12
Speaker
And to ask you almost like another kind of origin story question. But one of the questions I tend to ask guests is, who or what made you who you are? That's a big one. I have to say my mom in my life, growing up,
00:15:43
Speaker
She was very creative in her mind. She was a writer. And we kind of grew up, my siblings and I, I'm the last of four kids. And we grew up, she was a stay at home mom. And she really was so creative and made this little bubble for us. She would tell us stories, we'd read books, she'd make up games.
00:16:10
Speaker
It was a playful environment for most of it. And later in her life, she died about 13 years ago, not about. She died 13 years ago. And later in her life, she was very depressed. So it kind of changed as life went on for her. But I have to say that even the dark years at home with her,
00:16:40
Speaker
Yeah. They really did form what I do now. They really did. So I cannot not mention her for sure. And my husband, my husband, Richard, he was basically the first person I grew up in Anaheim. And my experience in Anaheim, there was no art and no
00:17:05
Speaker
appreciation for it, in my bubble at least. Like my parents didn't take us to museums or, you know, show us any art. But so like I didn't grow up around other artists, you know, a lot of people were just kind of closed off to it, you know, are not interested. And so my husband, when I met him, he was very
00:17:31
Speaker
Support of my art and he he believed in it when I didn't you know he believed in me when when I didn't and Because of that belief in it that I could see in him I I wanted to believe it you know so I he would encourage me to keep going and try new things and Reach out to people and network as much as I could this is before the internet So
00:18:00
Speaker
I wanted to believe in myself, and I didn't, but he did, and he had a huge impact on me. And all these years later, we've been together 22 years. All these years later, I believe it, and I can now meet that with him, you know, if that makes sense. Yeah. Those two people.
00:18:26
Speaker
Yeah, and thank you personally too. I know a recent guest I was talking to just about the highly personal connection of the person that believes in you or the connection of art and the actual relationship or the romantic ideals. And I'm not saying it was like that, because I don't know your life. But what I'm saying is I'm always attracted to that.
00:18:54
Speaker
deep human connection around like the endeavor, because it seems like there's so much more when that happens than, you know, evolving more people, I guess, right? Yeah, yeah. That is a very special thing. And I at the time, I didn't know, you know, at the time, I couldn't, I hadn't seen this happen before. And like I said, I wasn't believing in myself. So I was just kind of going along with it. But looking back, I know exactly what you're saying, like,
00:19:22
Speaker
Yeah, there were other forces at play there, you know? A big belief in faith, right? On some level, for some things, you do it. Well, thank you so much for that. Another big creation question is,
00:19:49
Speaker
As a creator and you've seen yourself as an artist and more as your identity, as you've gone along, do you ever step back and say, you know, why am I creating?
Purpose of Creating Art
00:20:07
Speaker
Who's it for? Why do we create as humans? What are we trying to do? Yeah. What's the point? Yeah. What are we up to? What am I doing? What am I doing here?
00:20:19
Speaker
Yeah, I do. I do. I think that's a good question to ask yourself. And when it comes up, it can kind of feel scary, like a crisis. But I think it's very important to ask yourself, what am I doing here? What is this for? The way that I answered that to myself,
00:20:45
Speaker
is like I was saying, this is kind of like a self-discovery process through art, through my life. And as long as I'm able, I'm going to continue doing it. And I don't know. So the process is for me, the process of all the hours
00:21:10
Speaker
painting, all the thinking, the looking, the searching for inspiration or whatever, that is all for me. And then when I put it into a group show or a gallery or it goes on display somewhere,
00:21:32
Speaker
does something for other people. That's not for me anymore. I have the process and that is my way to look into myself and then I give it to the world, so to speak. From there, wherever it goes, whoever it
00:21:59
Speaker
touches whoever sees it, whoever spends time with it or is thoughtful about it, then they get something. They get something for themselves. Are there pieces you feel like that you need and you couldn't give up? Yeah, definitely.
00:22:19
Speaker
You don't have to tell us what they are, but these are things that, you know, never, like they never extend beyond you. They're for you and they don't go out there, right? Yes. And when I was first, when I first started showing professionally in galleries years ago, I really struggled with that because it is such a personal thing between, you know, myself and myself. And how do I invite people into that or put it up?
00:22:49
Speaker
on a wall and what is the relationship become kind of thing? Am I looking for attention? Am I looking for, you know, am I inviting people to criticize me? What am I doing? So I had to learn early about just kind of giving it out, like giving it back to the world or, you know, separating my part from the world's
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah, I've had that conversation with artists and I've also dealt with it myself and it really comes down to the relationships with the things and the things that you create and I find that sometimes when I've had like or I've like recently maybe had like a heavier period of producing let's just say
00:23:41
Speaker
things that comes to like a point sometimes where I like I feel like I'm maintaining like too many relationships with all this stuff like I like you I dislike you you make me you remind me when I was four and terrified whatever and and and so yeah yeah well thank you thank you brand and I know why I'm talking to Brandy yeah I feel
00:24:08
Speaker
I could have started being brandy. Why do I feel so crowded all the time? Right. I can tell you, Ken, let's go in and have a moment on the couch. But yeah, I do appreciate and love the aspects of that because it's kind of like the way that I think about it. And just the ones that you need to look at at a particular time to get yourself straight, right? Yeah, yeah.
00:24:45
Speaker
All right. All right. We get a focus on your mind back again, not what's going on here. Wait, I like that. So Brandi, I do want to ask the big one too, though I have two or three more questions for you. I want to ask the big one of, we've been talking about things and some things.
00:24:53
Speaker
And if they weren't on that wall and somewhere else, they would have been thrown into another universe.
Philosophical Insights on Belief
00:25:09
Speaker
Why is there something rather than nothing?
00:25:13
Speaker
I love this question, and I don't know the answer, but I'll try and put some words out. I think it goes back to the question of faith or the idea of faith and believing. You have to believe there's something. You have to. If you believe there's nothing which I have in my life, very severely,
00:25:43
Speaker
Well, what good do I do in the world that way, in that mindset? I didn't do my best under that set of beliefs of there is nothing. So I believe there's something. I believe there's something. There's whatever reason, whatever role art has, whatever role we have, what communication, what does it mean, what is it for?
00:26:13
Speaker
I'm not sure, but I know we're here and we're doing it and we're able to and we create things and we can think and we can feel and those things are very important and it's a miracle. And to have a belief that there's nothing, well, you're missing everything. You're missing everything.
00:26:40
Speaker
If you, if you think about like a foot, like it's could count, like sound, sound lame. But if you look at like just a flower, you know, there's, there's lots of them around. You walk by them, you don't pay attention. But if you, if you really do look at that and you think, what is the purpose of this thing? Nobody's going to even see it, but it's beautiful and it's alive and it's, it's giving us something, you know,
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's a lot. It's life, like literally life. Well, that's something, that's not nothing. And yeah, so that's, that's very important to believe in something. No, thank you. I appreciate your wonderful answer. And I, I think about the components of faith too. And like, um,
00:27:37
Speaker
And of course, it's one of the greatest songs ever by George Michael for me. Definitely. That as well. Hey, Brandi, I'm asking this question a little bit differently nowadays or opening up the opportunity for you to talk about your work, where to
Where to Find Brandy's Work
00:27:52
Speaker
find it. But the first part I wanted to start in is like I'm asking folks now, like in the world, like physically in museums, are there some places and where do they find your work like in the world? Yeah, out in the world right now.
00:28:07
Speaker
I have a painting at Corey Helford Gallery. They are having their 15-year anniversary show. It's a big group show. This is the second half. It was so big they cut it in half. And I believe that goes through next month or maybe half. It's up now. So that's at Corey Helford Gallery in downtown LA.
00:28:33
Speaker
And right now, I believe that's all that's out there on display in the world. That's a great, well-known
00:28:42
Speaker
well-regarded gallery down in LA. Wonderful. And you said a group exhibit as well for people to track down there. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good. Other places to, to, to encounter you, find you online or ways of which, you know, people can experience your art. I have my website, brandymilny.com.
00:29:09
Speaker
But really, if you look, if you find me on Instagram, it's at at Brandy Milney. I'm on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. And I use Instagram mostly as more of like a daily kind of diary or, you know, just posting stuff and stories like inspiration, you know, thoughts, silly stuff, kind of like a diary thing. So find me.
00:29:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah and in printed magazines just to bring them up on my door High fructose juxtaposed places like that and I've seen you there, right? Yes. Yes. Yeah What was it two years ago? I had a big feature in high fructose there. Yeah, that's such a wonderful magazine
00:30:06
Speaker
gosh, it's so great talking to you. This is a great interview. I love these questions again. I so appreciate it. Yeah, and thank you. I mean, it does mean a lot for me to know, because like, you know, what does a podcast mean? Why talk about anything nowadays? Why do you? Yeah, I mean, why do I? Yeah. Yeah. I can tell you, and thank you for asking that. The reason why I do is,
00:30:36
Speaker
So I'm a trained philosopher, I believe, in pitched disagreement in conversation and thinking and openness towards different things. And my firm belief is that by opening up some space for conversation, we can try to get away from the fact that all people seem to want to do right now is kill each other.
00:31:05
Speaker
Oh my gosh. You know, like as a pressure valve or something. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That's really amazing.
00:31:16
Speaker
Well, in the space too is I decided that there wouldn't be, it's independent, I can do whatever I want. So I think for folks to come into non-capitalist, non-hierarchical, feminist, inclusive, talking about philosophy, people are reasonably kind of like, what the fuck for a little bit?
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah. Why do I do it, right? Thank you. Thank you for doing it. Thank you. Well, you know, there's an episode.
00:31:59
Speaker
There's my episode where I was interviewed. It was an accident because I got on the phone with a guest, the woman who does the voice for the show, her name's Rachel Lally. And she was a guest of mine. She's from Dublin. She's lovely and wonderful. And she was on with me because we're both going to do an interview with this Irish poet, a friend of hers. He didn't show up. And she was like, all right, so now I'm going to interview you. So that's all.
00:32:23
Speaker
I'm gonna go back and listen to it. I think it's like in the 60s, like 67 or something like that. If I was super cagey, which I remember being, you know, you could take me up on it later. Yeah, yeah.
00:32:43
Speaker
It's been a great pleasure to talk to Brandy Milney. And Brandy, before we let you go here, I was just wondering if you had anything you just wanted to say to listen to an audience, something that's on your mind?
Upcoming Solo Exhibition Invitation
00:32:57
Speaker
Well, I want to invite everybody to my next solo exhibition next year. It's at Courtney Helford Gallery in downtown LA. The opening night is October 29.
00:33:11
Speaker
And that's 2022. So I want to invite everybody. Everybody's invited. Please come. Incredible. Two days before Halloween. Yeah. Yep. 2022. Yep. Brandi Milney, Corey Helford Gallery. You know, I think now some of us feel we can plan for the future a little bit more. And some of that information, I'm looking to plan for the future as well. Yeah. How exciting. Yes.
00:33:39
Speaker
Uh, Brandy, Brandy Milney, uh, thank you so much for your time. It's been a wonderful to meet you and wonderful to have a, you know, uh, a discussion around like life and in creating and living. Um, so I wanted to let you know from the, from my perspective and podcast perspective, um, being a guest on something rather than nothing is, uh, is a great honor for me and for the show. And I wanted to thank you for that.
00:34:06
Speaker
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me and being so thoughtful and open. I really appreciate it. Absolutely. We'll talk soon. Let's make sure we talk soon, Brandi. Yes, yes. Thank you. This is something rather than nothing.