Artist Interview - Brittany M. Reid
Brittany M. Reid is an artist who works primarily in the medium of collage. As a mother, wife and creator she uses her art and the community she has cultivated online to express herself. Reid has been one of the driving forces behind the #blackcollagesmatter movement online. She reached out to the original creator of the hashtag and together they transformed it into a collaborative fundraising effort. Reid’s work has brought awareness of the lack of representation of Black subjects in the predominantly white collage art world. The collage world is a microcosm of the art world at large. Just as women can be grossly underrepresented in these spaces, women of color are even more so. Reid uses her artwork and her online presence to build community and also help put money into the pockets of Black artists. Her artistic practice is multifaceted, intersectional, vibrant and evolving.
Where are you from? Where are your roots?
I am from Rochester, NY. Born and raised. My immediate family members all live within about 20 minutes of each other so I will probably always be here. Having access to my family is something that's so important to me.
Describe your preferred artistic practice & mediums?
My practice is very much unstructured, based purely on whatever I feel I need to create in that moment. Sometimes I'll come up with an idea while I'm working or right before bed and I make sure I get it down in my Notes app so I don't forget. I've tried making a schedule, but it just doesn't work. I also struggle with prompt-based work. Most of the time, I grab hold of whatever idea strikes me. I've made a promise to myself to never create art with the idea of "content creation" in mind. I share my art on IG and I love being part of the community, but if you don't like what I post that's fine too. I can't allow public opinion to dictate what I want to make. I have worked with analog film and acrylics in the past. Recently, I've started experimenting with incorporating resin and spray-painted backgrounds into my collages. I love to dabble and learn new techniques. This goes back to never making art and treating it like content. I think many artists start to feel trapped in a niche when they do that. I want to be able to switch gears because that's the essence of being an artist - expressing your evolution.
Why do you make art?
I need a space to hold every part of my identity. I have a full-time job, I'm married, and I'm a mother, but those relationships represent parts of a whole. Art is the best way to honor and love all the parts of me. It's beyond self-expression, it's self-love and self-celebration.
Tell us a bit about your artistic journey and how it began?
Anytime anybody asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I said "Artist". I had access to art education as child, my mother put me in art-focused extracurriculars so it always came very naturally to me. I minored in fine arts as an undergraduate because I wanted more structured learning around something I had always been interested in. I made some collages for family members a few years ago, but other than that I never made a single collage before Jan 2020. Up until then I always treated art as a hobby, but that changed last year. A couple of months before the pandemic I was dealing with some severe depression and then a good friend died. The more life threw at me the more I threw myself into my art as a means of survival.
How long have you been making collage?
I have been making collage consistently since Jan of 2020, not long at all. In that time I’ve made just under 200 pieces and gotten comfortable branching out beyond the use of just paper.
Tell us how your #blackcollagesmatter project started?
The hashtag was actually created by @collage.tron in an Instagram post last June to bring more visibility to Black-centric collage. It was painfully obvious to us and I'm sure many other Black collage creators and curators that our IG timelines were dominated by collages featuring white subjects. When I saw this call, America was in heavy turmoil - we were about 3 months into the pandemic and there were nationwide protests against the murder of George Floyd. I was feeling so helpless. So when I saw this somewhat niche call, I wanted to take full advantage of it. I reached out to @collage.tron to find out if he was interested in making it into a collaborative fundraising effort. We decided I would leverage his expansive platform to invite other artists to create Black-centric collages with the intention of selling them so that the proceeds could go to the Black Art Futures fund.
What is the mission?
There have always been two purposes for me: The first is to increase the prevalence of Black-centric collage, specifically within Instagram. The second is to put money in Black folks' pockets. This is why I emphasize this is an ongoing call. There is no such thing as too much Black collage. I want to continue seeing more on social media and out in the world.
Tell us about the #blackcollagesmatter book. What did that project involve? Are you planning on others?
This came forth pretty organically. Aaron Beebe, collage artist and {th ink} publisher reached out to me shortly after seeing the #BlackCollagesMatter call on Instagram. He offered to publish a selection of the pieces that were being submitted as a book, free of charge. I took ownership of tracking all the pieces that were submitted, selecting which would appear in the book, communicating with all artists involved, and tracking all proceeds to be donated. He was behind the design and formatting and I'm so grateful for that because that itself was a massive undertaking. He was a joy to work with. My next big project? I want to publish another book, but this time of queer Black collages that are primarily from BIPOC artists. That being said, I'm still learning how to navigate through life without having my plate be constantly full. Publishing the last book was a lot of work and I want to be sure I have the time and energy necessary to pull off something like that again.
Any events, shows, or projects coming up you'd like to share with the readers?
Yes! I'm in a local exhibition that the Rochester Contemporary Art Center is hosting called 6x6 and an upcoming virtual exhibition with Visionary Arts Collective called When Words Fail. I'm also hosting a giveaway raffle to celebrate my birthday which will begin the last week of May. All those proceeds will be donated to a local organization that collects food from the community and redistributes it to those who need it.
We are strong believers that the more people discuss failure or setbacks, the less significant the possibility of it becomes. In our society, we are so terrified of the possibility of something not working out, that it halts all our efforts to begin with. We ask all of our interviewees if they can share a time where something (a project or opportunity) did not work out and how did you move forward?
This is such a great question and I think it's something that doesn't get enough attention. We spend so much time declaring our success and being asked about our wins that it makes it seem like it's the only thing we're experiencing. So I will say it's not just one project in particular for me, it's all the open calls I've been rejected from. It's important to become familiar with and embrace rejection. It's part of the process. It's normal and healthy. I process rejection much differently than I did a year ago. I don't take it personally and I don't interpret my work as being sub-standard. Growth is uncomfortable. The way I see it is if I'm not getting rejected I'm playing it too safe.
Bio:
Brittany M. Reid was born and raised in Rochester, NY where she studied Psychology and Fine Arts at St. John Fisher College and SUNY Brockport. Her earlier work in photography and painting focuses on finding comfort in nature and in close relationships with others. She was deeply influenced by frequent trips to art galleries with her mother as a child and by her interest in astronomy at a young age.
She currently resides in Rochester where she works primarily in analog collage. Although relatively new to collage, she has been more prolific in this medium than any other. She also leads the #BlackCollagesMatter movement within Instagram, an ongoing call to collage artists that asks them to create and submit pieces that center Black subjects to increase Black visibility in the collage community. Along with this project, she has collaborated with {th ink} publication and released a special edition #BlackCollagesMatter issue to showcase artists who have participated in the project, donating the proceeds to the Black Trans Femmes in the Arts Collective.
Statement:
Reality can be traumatic and my collages are created with another reality in mind - one that combines the most delightful memories of the past with the dreams that the future may hold. My obsession with outer space and attraction to nature collide with a nostalgic aesthetic achieved from my choice to use source material from the 80's and 90's. The entire process of collaging is therapeutic for me. Getting that perfect cut is an act of catharsis.
I let my childhood memories, experiences as a queer, Black woman, and life as a mother dictate much of my work. My pieces highlight not only the surreal beauty that exists within all of nature, but also how that beauty is reflected in the experience of each individual. The themes I present ask the viewer to consider humans' complicated relationship with nature, the macrocosm vs. the microcosm, and the power of the female experience.
Find Brittany’s work: https://paperheartgallery.com IG @paper.heart.gallery
