Momentum Artist: Brandi Downham, OKC

Brandi N Downham, OKC

The Night Before
Mixed Media

Q: What was the concept behind your Momentum artwork?
A: My work focuses on specific moments in time. I’m concerned with capturing elements within the still spaces that I remember, and the feelings and meanings I found in those moments. Each piece contains an account, a secret, and reveals parts of myself. In addition to memory, I’m interested in structure, and the configuration of spaces because this is how I recount and interpret the spaces within my memories.

Dolese
Mixed Media

The piece titled Dolese is a fond memory of my granddad, who was the owner of a concrete construction business centralized in Edmond. When I was a little girl, I would go with him to the Dolese Plant in Edmond, where he would visit with the crew and put in orders. I waited in the car, and stared in amazement at the plant, and the steel machinery that looked to my little eyes, like a roller coaster ride. I wondered how this thing worked, the mechanics and system that operated this maze of steel. I remember it so well, I can smell it. I work in the area, so once in a while I still drive by that plant.


Q: Explain the technique and/or process you used to create your Momentum work.
A: For this piece, I was interested in an architectural piece, (nudge to both dad, and granddad), capturing elements of the plant that I specifically remember, and find aesthetically interesting. I drove to the plant and parked. There, I took notes in my car, about images in my memory, feelings, areas of interest, and I took photographs, which I later manipulated and used for reference. I used several sheets of my dad's old blueprints, laid them out with tape on the surface of the canvas. I cut lines, angles, and sections of negative space into the blueprints to expose the natural wood underneath. Once I had the sections cut out, I adhered them with a matt medium so that I could work on top of them.


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