We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brennan Maine. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brennan below.
Hi Brennan, appreciate you sitting with us today. Maybe we can start with a topic that we care deeply about because it’s something we’ve found really sets folks apart and can make all the difference in whether someone reaches their goals. Self discipline seems to have an outsized impact on how someone’s life plays out and so we’d love to hear about how you developed yours?
My self-discipline wasn’t something that came to me naturally. I am naturally a free-flowing spirit that doesn’t really enjoy being weighted down by routine, commitment, or pressure.
My self-discipline was an intentional cultivation that has been year in the making. I had to learn to love the process of showing up especially when I didn’t want to. I had to learn how to create time by making a routine that grounded me first in my self and then in my creative practice. I always used to wait for those moments of genius to come and take a hold of me, but would be left feeling low self esteem when what I created in the meantime between those moments was very forgettable. I had to alter my relationship to my art completely by regularly visiting it like a friendship that needs the trust to be built first.
I realized in my explosive moments of inspiration I was regularly completing projects off of momentum, but the practice of showing up regularly in the moments where inspiration knew where to find me working, was the real secret sauce. So by showing up for my art at a scheduled time everyday even for as short as 30 minutes means that from that discipline, not only am I developing the trust between my creative soul and my body, but showing that creative spirit that I will be there when it comes to find me in inspiration.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Currently I am in a collaborative period of my life. I have made a lot of art just based off of my personal exploration and wanting to understand myself deeper. Recently, I’ve been wanting to be of service and build more community for my art. I’ve been struggling with selling my digital prints, for what I have done for the past 3 years, because of how much I have fallen in love with trees. The process of making paper should be something very sacred and what should be printed on it should be just as sacred. I do believe that my work is sacred, but I want to bring my work into something more evergreen, liveable and impactful.
I have been playing with making my art into patterns for wearable art and want to very carefully select how I partner with clothing brands. The clothing industry is extremely wasteful and one of the biggest ingesters of fossil fuels. Fast fashion has destroyed our relationship to clothing, where a unique sense of style, custom-made pieces, and things designed to last have basically gone extinct. It’s frightening to see how far we’ve gotten lost on this path of consumption. My intention is to partner with companies that source their fibers ethically and as I navigate what that really means, I want to make patterns that share the stories of marginalized voices through my art.
I am very much in the research and testing phases of my art process, but I am looking forward to sharing what will come from this soon.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I have very much been on the commercial artist track since I began to sell my work as prints three years ago although that wasn’t what I had imagined for myself, I am grateful, because as far as understanding the marketing aspect of art, I’ve learned how to reach a broader audience by understanding who I am making this art for. Knowing who I am making this art for and finding the gaps in what doesn’t exist yet has been what has driven anything that I have created.
Another important lesson that I have learned is that it’s never too late to start and that you should never be afraid to show up imperfectly to something new. It’s okay if you want to give it a go, but don’t feel ready or prepared. You can show up imperfectly until you know better from the experience that you will gain.
The last thing I would say impacted my journey is not being afraid to get vulnerable. As a matter of fact, that is the best place to share yourself from. It opens up portals, bridges of understanding between you and whomever your vulnerability connects with. You never know who you will reach when you do so. It’s so easy to get discouraged seeing all the amazing talent out there, I’d say flip the script and just be inspired by the talent out there and rest assured that by showing up authentically as yourself, you are inspiring others!
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
Wow, books have been everything this year for me. I started reading more regularly because of the pandemic and I am so grateful to get back to my childhood self who was always tucked away somewhere reading. All of my books have been about mythology and indigenous culture/wisdom. Here are my top favorites:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Anam Cara; A Book of Celtic Wisdom
by John O’Donohue
We Are the Middle of Forever; Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island On the Changing Earth
By Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth
Shark Dialogues
By Kiana Davenport
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
By Barbara Kingsolver
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
By Peter Wohlleben
These books have taught me how crucial it is to re-develop a relationship with the nature within and around us. Our planet is such a special one and so are the humans and non-humans that inhabit it. That should be enough to get you really loving this planet for how truly special it is.
Contact Info:
- Website: brennanalexa.com
- Instagram: @__brennanalexa__
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennanmaine/
- Other: Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/brennanalexa
Image Credits
Bio photo: Kenna Reed
