Issue 3 Artist Spotlight | Bri Custer
C+B: Tell us about yourself, Bri!
BC: My heart still flutters a bit when I get to tell people I'm a full time artist. I got my undergraduate degree in art, then did administrative work at The University of New Hampshire for about five years before getting my masters in Art Ed. When the pandemic hit in the middle of my first year of teaching in my own classroom (I actually went between two schools teaching K-8), I burned out fast and knew I had to make a change. With a pile of student loan debt hanging over my head, I decided that I would make the full time jump to painting. I had been painting and selling my work consistently for a few years. Even when I was putting in the work to become a teacher, I was preparing for this even bigger dream that I knew was somewhere down the road. Covid just happened to accelerate it a little bit.
To fill the need for community that leaving a job opened up, I also started teaching and organizing critique groups under the title The Non-Toxic Crit Group. I've had the pleasure of meeting so many amazing artists and still get to exercise my teaching and leadership abilities between studio days. I'm hosting my seventh group this Spring!
I'm a passionate mediocre gardener and I love daily walks with my partner Bryan and our hound-lab mix Vinny. I like a good balance of being outside in any form (hiking, mountain biking, skiing, kayaking) and being curled up under a blanket in front of my favorite series of the moment (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Orange is the New Black, and any dramatized documentary series). Don't make me pick between coffee and tea, I can't live without either.
C+B: How has your relationship with your work changed since you first started creating?
BC: I honestly think the more I paint and learn about the creative process, the less I feel like I know. I'm more flexible and comfortable with nuance, chaos, and uncertainty than I was when I started. I've become better at embracing my own tendencies with paint and letting go of what I think painting "should" be.
C+B: Share some details about your process for creating.
BC: As a plein air painter, my practice shifts a lot with the season. If the weather was perfect, my ideal schedule would be a slow start to the morning with a mid afternoon painting session. I find that's when I have the most energy. In terms of how long, I don't have the stamina for an eight hour, or even six hour painting day. A three hour session for me is perfect, and I usually finish a painting in one to two sessions, working wet into wet. Painting in shorter stints requires decisiveness and immediacy. There isn't so much time to think, it's more about responding to what's being observed and whatever happens happens. I am always listening to something, even when painting outside. Sometimes it's music, or podcasts, or the news, but it helps me get out of my head and not overthink what I'm doing.
C+B: What is the one accomplishment you most hope to achieve in your creative career?
BC: Oh there are so many goals & dreams, so it's hard to narrow it down to one big one. I'm going to tell you my pie in the sky dream that feels super vulnerable to put out there because it feels like such a reach from where I am right now. When I studied abroad in 2013, our group attended the Venice Bienalle. If you haven't been, the best way I can describe it is the art olympics. During the Bienalle, each country has a pavilion that is transformed into an installation or gallery showcasing a contemporary artist that was chosen to represent their country. The energy was electric. Some day, I want to be involved. I don't care if I'm an artist, on a selection committee, or part of the installation team, I just want to be a part of that energy.
Find and support Bri here:
IG: @briiiiicuster
Web: http://bricuster.com
(Chosen, 12" x 12," oil on canvas, ©Bri Custer)
If my work was a meal it would be: Wow I really had to think on this one. I would describe my work as indulgent and impulsive, so it's got to be a dessert. My color is strong and sometimes feels sticky sweet when I get into the pinks and greens of summer, so we're talking cake or donuts here.
I would love to be able to share my work with: Oh, the imposter syndrome in me just crept up as I read this one. My first instinct is to be self-conscious of other artists' perceptions of my work, and it's something I'm working on. A lot. I honestly think I would want to sit down and have a critique with Lois Dodd. She's a Maine painter who is focused on observing and reacting to the landscape around her without too much fussiness. I have so much respect for her, so just sharing a conversation with her would be the hugest privilege.
If I didn’t paint, my creative outlet would be: Printmaking, one hundred percent. I fell in love with lithography as a student and dream of returning to it someday. I've had my eye out for affordable presses to be able to weave monoprinting into my current practice, but I don't really even have space at the moment. I also have a hard time focusing on so many things at once, so I think if there comes a time when I'm able to dive back into printmaking, painting will have to take a back seat. I tend to get fixated on whatever I'm working on and everything else get's pushed out.
My hope for those viewing my work: We all have a feeling about the environment we live in. Reverence, nostalgia, apathy--maybe even fear. I hope viewers of my work bring their own perceptions and memories to the experience of looking. I hope they see their own landscape, their own memory in a slant of light or the shape of a tree in my work. I guess in simpler words, I hope they can connect to the way I paint my own landscape memories.
