My time at ComPeung was short and very beneficial. It was exactly what I needed at this time in my life. Although, financially I’m not sure it was the wisest, but I have no regrets. I spent the month of August at ComPeung expanding my body of work, and it was sort of this calm-before-the-storm, because the following month I packed up my things in Texas and moved to New York City.
The first couple weeks in Thailand I was a blocked artist, and created work that I wasn’t very proud of, but felt pressured because I didn’t want to waste any time. However, when Maureen came back from vacation with Ong, she helped me out and gave me pointers (and endless books) on how to unblock myself as an artist. One of the most important books she let me borrow was The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and it’s a 12 week program teaching you many different techniques to get your creativity flowing. So for the second half of the residency I turned my phone off, and allowed no connection to anything or anyone back home (except through email incase of emergency) and attempted to meditate. I had never tried meditating before, and I wasn’t too good at clearing my mind without falling asleep. So another technique that Maureen told me was to write every morning before I did anything else. A way to clear my mind of everything and start the day fresh. I did this the last couple weeks at ComPeung and there was a major change in the work that I created at the beginning compared to the work I created near the end.
Again, my bank account wasn’t too happy that I decided to do this residency only a few days before moving to New York, but I have no regrets. ComPeung was exactly what I needed at this time in my life. I learned so much about life in Chiang Mai/Doi Saket, and I learned even more about myself. I owe a big thank you to Steve, Ong and Maureen for helping me out for that whole month! This is an incredible residency and I will be talking about it for a very long time.
August 2017
A few months ago I started experimenting with photography and bringing my drawings to life and I feel that this environment will help to inspire my photographs.
I’ve hit a point where I’m really in love with my work and where it’s going and I just want to give my pieces my undivided attention. I’m going into this residency with an open mind but with an expectation to leave a more confident artist. I want to be someone that never doubts her profession and to be surrounded by others that have a passion for the same things I do and push me to become better.
I hope to leave here with new and fresh ideas for my work and a new found inspiration to create something different.
Brittany is a graduate from the University of North Texas with her BFA in Drawing and Painting.
Brittany focuses on the mental and physical state of the human body, because she’s constantly fascinated by the way it bends, twists and moves and how much pressure, stress, and physical damage we can put our bodies through.
As a child she was blind to the fact that her mother was mentally unstable and a drug addict. Drugs ate away at the spontaneous bright personality that her mother had and turned the two into strangers. These emotions are echoed into Brittany’s work as she breaks down and disguises the figure so they are recognized as the human form but the viewer feels no personal connection to the subject.
