Briar West, a visionary fluid artist raised in Southern California, infuses her work with the essence of the ocean. She embraces the elegance of imperfection and the beauty in chaos. Through her art, she captures the notion that we are all imperfectly perfect, and believes that’s a beautiful thing. Briar’s journey into art is as unconventional as her medium. With a background in medical research, her artistic path began as a blend of self-care and curiosity. Lacking traditional supplies, she started experimenting with inks, using materials she had on hand - alcohol, bleach, vodka, even antifreeze. This inventive spirit defines her work to this day, often sourcing supplies from Home Depot, liquor stores, and auto part stores. Briar is known for her dynamic process, sometimes using a leaf blower to swiftly guide alcohol and ink across large canvases, capturing a moment before it fades. Briar has been called an alchemist, taking common, everyday products and creating magic. Today she continues to use those same materials in her work, as that is what she knows and loves. Her unrelenting curiosity has led to the creation of increasingly larger and larger pieces. Her work can now be seen in lobbies, homes, and offices across the country.

www.BriarWestStudio.com
IG: @BriarWestStudio

Artifice

Ep. 215: Briar West

Buy / Stream

I Remember Maine

A nuanced collection anchoring somewhere between art pop and cinematic jazz fusion (Kate Bush meets Janelle Monae), weaving playful and evocative lyrics through colorful harmonies and energetic grooves.

Inspired by her fascination with our human tendency to pose, posture, and conceal, Emily’s most recent work explores themes of disguise and disclosure: “Masks can be calculated or unconscious; liberating or constricting; subversive, strategic, coquettish, coercive, and everything is layered.” 

Masks seemed an inevitable theme for this body of work as Emily began to face the truth of her mother’s narcissistic personality disorder (and terminal brain cancer diagnosis), the limitations of socially-constructed gender norms and presentations, and the many-layered facades of the institutions of power holding up our world. 

As a concept album, “Masks” hits this thematic material head-on with discerning, if whimsical lyrics, but also takes a symbolic approach—layering bright grooves and harmonies over gloomy text, or cloaking light-hearted lyrics in harmonic depth. 

Pursuing a desire to lift this project into a physical space, Emily has curated a team of brilliant visual and performance artists to create several mixed-media companion pieces for each song. Emily is particularly thrilled to have each of her pieces brought to life as an adult-coloring-book—manifesting her belief that creativity is paramount for all. “It’s the most joyful thing to demonstrate my values in such a meaningful way, to give my listeners this immersive template to fill with their own creative expression.” 

The remaining mixed-media works are available as a Free 10-day interactive online experience at Emily's website.

Aside from writing and performing her original music, Emily puts her arts-centric values first with her original podcast, “Artifice,” wherein she interviews professional artists about the origins and development of their creativity, the logistics of life as an “artpreneur,” and their strategies for blending vulnerability with veneer as they cultivate creative resilience. And as always, Emily draws from creative philosophies and curiosity first-fostered during her time studying jazz at the world-renown University of North Texas as she seeks to break barriers of genre, theme, and medium in search of new inspiration.

Graceful & Mysterious

Described as “playing a mean guitar” (Wichita Eagle), William Flynn is a Kansas-based jazz guitarist and educator currently serving as Director of Jazz Studies at Wichita State University. William’s recent professional engagements include performances at the Overture to Overtown Jazz Festival (Miami, FL), the Charlie Parker Celebration Festival (Kansas City), The University of Central Oklahoma Jazz Lab, and The Blue Room (Kansas City). William’s recent releases can be heard on Armored Records and Artists Recording Collective.

Widely respected as a leading educator in his field, William has presented and adjudicated at conferences and universities across the country. His educational writing has been published in Just Jazz Guitar Magazine, and he is the co-author of Mel Bay’s 2016 publication Jazz Guitar Duets. Additionally, William is the founder of @thejazzwoodshed, an educational Instagram account followed by thousands of users from around the world.

William holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies from Capital University (Columbus, OH), and a Master of Music degree from the University of North Texas, where he taught as a Graduate Teaching Fellow. From 2011-2012, William held the guitar chair in the world-renowned and Grammy-nominated University of North Texas One O’ Clock Lab Band, and can be heard on Lab 2012.

In his position at Wichita State University, William teaches applied guitar and jazz improvisation, and directs both the Jazz Arts Ensemble 2 and the Guitar Ensemble.

http://www.williamflynnmusic.com/

Ep. 58: William Flynn

Great art almost feels like magic—it opens our minds to brand new ideas, and teaches us to see ourselves and our world more clearly. Of course, behind all great art, there are artists. And that’s where the real magic happens…

As we go beneath the art itself to explore how different artists do what they do, we see glimpses of the sorts of creativity, resilience, and bravery that lead to the art that moves our world. And maybe we can learn to borrow some of that magic for our very own thinking.

Join professional musician Emily Merrell for conversations with artists of all kinds. Together, we examine the mysteries of our own experiences, our muses and fears, our gifts and foibles, our beliefs about the origins of creativity, and the secret magic we’ve discovered in our unique creative processes. 

Mediums include: studio art, graphic design, dance, cooking, illustration, creative writing, storytelling, comedy, music composition, music performance, film making, acting, production, fashion design, photography, and more.

Visit https://emilymerrellmusic.com/artifice-podcast/  for more information.

- Theme Song "As You Are" by Emily Merrell @emilymerrellmusic
- Illustration and Graphic Design by Sarah Keele @sarahkeeleart
- Photography by Jen Palmer @jenpalmerphoto
- HMU by Shawna Turner @shawnaturnerdesigns

Ep. 215: Briar West

ARTIFICE

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