Wk 8 – Artist Conversation -Brianna Joy

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – A personal message.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Brianna Joy

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Flyer.

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16

Aaron Dela Rosa, Art 110, Spring ’16 – Panoramic View.

Artist: Brianna Joy (AKA Bri Joy)

Exhibition: Merged  

Media: Screen Printing

Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Gatov Gallery East

Instagram: @bri.joy

Brianna Joy showcases her work at California State University, Long Beach. Joy is currently an undergraduate pursuing her BFA and is expected to graduate this year. Originally from Orange Coast College, she managed to transfer at CSULB in order to achieve her degree. Born and raised in a small community, her arrival to Long Beach is a huge impact for her art. Aside from being an art student, she is interested in an array of activities ranging from sports, yoga, and various stuff that includes “board”. As an artist, Joy prefers to be at the presence with her peers: one of the reasons why she doesn’t  have a website. She believes the way she markets herself is paramount, which is why she isn’t the typical artist. She wants her work to be genuine; as her exhibit explores two important elements of her life: the small town and big city.

Joy’s primary technique for her work consists of print making. In her exhibit, she utilizes two contrasting shades: black and white. Joy uses style in order challenge color. As many people can associate color, it’s white the challenge to decipher black and white alone. Although it’s simple at face value, the contrasting colors are quite complex. She uses organic art with various lines in order to compliment the meaning behind her work. She describes the process of screening prints quite the process considering how it takes time and effort to combine various layers into one.

Joy’s pieces acknowledge two huge parts of her life: the small town and big city. Joy’s work is a representation of her past and present. For example, her primary work, “Merge” shows two sides of her. The two contrasting sides (executed through contrasting shades) reflect the two types of environment she lived. The actual experience of having to transition into a drastically new setting allows her to gain the motivation behind her work. The fact that she actually experienced a difficult transition causes her work to be more genuine. Going back to her techniques, print making can reflect the way in which she ‘merges’ the two parts of her. While Brianna has to combine/compress various layers to make one, the fact that she is able to take both her past and present and make it into ‘one’ is the beauty behind her work.

Joy’s pieces allows me to see how the past and present can be combined into one entity. In this case, her past and present being mashed together to represent her showcase. The art allows the audience to consider two contrasting elements seen into one setting. Her idea is portrayed through the use of print making and contrasting shades. For the most part, I’m impressed not only by the visuals of the exhibit, but also the meaning behind her work.