Hello and welcome to the 59th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed super skilled artist Priscilla Briggs who is currently doing an arts residency in Italy. Her art has always been very impressive to me and I first saw it when I was 11 years old at Rosalux Gallery - a picture of an ad for luxury homes in a not very luxury setting always stuck with me. I'm so glad Priscilla agreed to be interviewed and I think you will enjoy her answers as much as I did. Thank you for reading! (All images courtesy of the artist / Instagram: @priscilla_briggs_ / Website: priscillabriggs.com)
Jackson: What inspired you to become an artist as a way of life? How old were you?
Priscilla: My grandmother was a painter and had a studio in her house. My siblings and I all inherited a creative gene that was fostered while we were growing up, but my understanding of "Art" was mostly painting and sculpture and it wasn't something I ever saw myself doing as a career.
My mother gave me my first camera as a birthday present when I was in high school. I experimented with it in art class and then took a class in college as part of a graphic design program, but the school only offered that one class. I was smitten with photography, mostly for portraiture, and used the darkroom as much as I could until the professor told me I wasn't allowed to use it anymore. I still wasn't thinking of art or photography as a career.
After college I moved to Tokyo to work for an English communications company. I edited scientific papers and taught English for a year, and then spent a year backpacking around Southeast Asia. When I returned to the U.S. I didn't really have a plan. I tried to get work as a writer, but there was a recession going on and every job I applied for was given to someone much older than me with a lot more experience. I did temp work, and, in my free time, took another class in color photography at The Pittsburgh Filmmakers. After a year or so, I got a job managing a small photo gallery. I was poor, but spent every spare cent I had on photo materials. Then a friend told me about a photo teaching position at the Manchester Craftsman's Guild, a community art center for youth. I thought it was a long shot because I didn't have a degree in photography, but I applied with the portfolio I had developed and got the job! It changed my life!
I worked there for four years teaching photography to teenagers, but I also was able to use the facilities and unlimited materials to make my own work. I experimented with every process I could and learned how to mat and frame work for exhibitions. It was an education for me. Just as important, all my colleagues were artists! Those of us who didn't already have an MFA eventually left and went on to graduate school. By the time I started graduate school I was 30 years old. Prior to my job at the Manchester Craftsman's Guild, it had never occurred to me that I could make a living as an artist.
Jackson: Where do you get the ideas for your work? Do you intend the photos to be social commentary or is that secondary?
Priscilla: Generally, my methodology is to identify as subject that interests me, and then to explore it photographically. I never know what I'm going to come up with ahead of time - it is an investigative process. I suppose the social commentary is inherent in that process and the final editing, but I try to leave the photographs as open as possible.
My collage work in the exhibition Reading Between the Lines was definitely a social critique. It was also somewhat depressing. From that point, I made a choice to work on a subject that is both close to my heart and more positive. I am currently investigating different models of sustainable farming. The project was instigated by an artist zine I made about my dad's organic farm. My goal is to put together a series of zines that represent case studies in models of sustainable farming that offer alternatives to industrial farming. I'm thinking of sustainability holistically in terms of environment, economics, and community.
Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?
Priscilla: A living artist I greatly admire is Hito Stereyl. She is a brilliant thinker and interdisciplinary artist/writer who addresses the issues of our time (media, technology, surveillance, image distribution) in a wholly original way.
A historic artist I admire is Artemisia Gentileschi. I recently had the opportunity to see her paintings in Florence. Specifically, the painting Giuditta che decapita Oloferne (Judith beheading Holofernes) reflect her rage toward the male painter who raped her. She made the painting shortly after she won a court case against him. I imagine she was a courageous, independent woman working as an artist at a time when women artists were rarely acknowledged.
