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The Other End of the Brush with Chelsea Brant

A Guelph Arts Council member spotlight

Chelsea Brant, a graduate of the University of Guelph’s Fine Arts program, believes that a variety of experiences is the key to gaining perspective and developing one’s art.

During her five years of study, Brant studied in Germany. She didn’t paint at all while she lived there. The art, Brant found, was more interactive and stylistically industrial than you would typically find here in Canada. “Their focus is on conceptual work and interactive installations.” Chelsea Brant’s website hosts a series of photographs she took of one such installation, a project where participants adventured around the city of Bremen to find and scan QR codes placed in unconventional locations.

“The passion for art there is so different from the passion you see here.” Brant found that students were expected to act, perform, and regard themselves as professional artists from the day they began studying. It’s different here in Canada, she says, as she found that she was given the impression that she would one day become a professional artist – it was something she was working towards through her degree. However, she finds that society and the art world in Canada are starting to demand more of art students much earlier in life, which forces young artists to establish themselves early on in their careers.

The other study abroad placement saw Chelsea in Australia, which influenced and inspired her art even after her return to Canada. “I lived with seven Australians,” she says of her stay. “Two of them were Aboriginal Australians. One was very involved in the community… I learned so much about art from them.”

Though it was only one small piece of the knowledge Chelsea gained in Australia, something that really resonated with her was the use of colour. A focus on “earth-based learning” means that the natural colours of surrounding landscapes are predominant in a lot of Aboriginal Australian art. This discovery made Brant look at her environment in a whole new light. “When I came back, I really noticed the trees, their textures, their patterns.” This appreciation of nature’s colours is one that is still reflected in her work.

Brant dabbles in painting, cut-out collages, drawing, and photography, but she frequently displays a theme of gathered fragments. “I find it’s a bit of a comfort zone, but it also challenges me in ways,” Chelsea says of her art style. “It’s a really contemplative experience, to get to sit with these personal images and rip them up and move them around and layer them to see how they work together.” Brant’s collage-style artwork seems to capture a tiny fragment of time, the flash of a moment that revives old memories. “I’m always trying to find the person in things.”

Even though much of her work ignites specific memories for her, others have felt a similar connection to Chelsea’s paintings. She recites a story of a woman who told Chelsea that one of her paintings reminded her of her childhood in Hong Kong. Art’s immense communicative power is not lost on Brant. “It’s amazing, to be able to have that human connection,” she says.

Earlier this year she began a new job at the University of Guelph, and she curated an exhibition in Hamilton called [Res]idual which ran through the summer. Brant has put her own painting practice on pause, and “the last five months have been heavily invested in the curatorial process.” She says taking a break from the activity she loves was difficult, but that it helped her truly appreciate creating art.

Widening her horizons seems to have granted Chelsea Brant the ability to see the overlooked beauty of unexpected things. Luckily, there is no shortage of “beauty in the banal” for Chelsea to share with us. Keep your eyes open for this creative’s future endeavours at http://chelseabrant.com.

 

By Emily Hearn, Guelph Arts Council

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